Miners react to possibility of UTEP expansion

On Thursday, the University of Texas Board of Regents will discuss whether or not to acquire the 443 acres commonly known as the former Asarco copper smelter site to expand the University of Texas at El Paso.

This is the same parcel of land that MountainStar Sports Group toured last month. Although the regents’ meeting expands two days, the possibility of acquiring the former Asarco site is set for 1:45 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

The agenda does not include a purchase price, but says two surveys conducted are contributing to the discussion.

Of course, along with the possibility of campus expansion comes questions like:

How will students travel between the campuses?

Will tuition costs rise?

Some miners ABC-7 spoke with on Tuesday favored the idea.

“I think it’s pretty cool. A lot of other UT system schools do it so I think it’ll look nice and it will be for the benefit of the students and everything, you know? And it’s not that far away, so it’s pretty cool,” one business undergraduate said.

“I think that our community does deserve a Harvard and UTEP can be that Harvard so I’m all for it. I support it. This community can really handle it and just needs to do it,” one graduate student said.

The discussion about the possibility of the campus expansion on the former Asarco site will be at UTEP on the third floor of the Union Building East at 500 W. University Ave. The agenda item is expected to happen around 1:45 p.m. Nov. 6.