The $110 million construction of Texas Western Hall (TWH) might scare some UTEP students. With a large price tag like this one, comes concern over tuition increases for the upcoming semesters.

That is not the case for this project as at the start of the previous school year, UTEP President Heather Wilson promised students that tuition will remain the same through the end of the 2024-2025 academic school year.

“With the cost of living going up for other things, we want to keep UTEP affordable,” Wilson said in a 2023 press release. “That starts with keeping the cost of tuition low for families. We are grateful for the support from the Regents, our donors and the Texas State Legislature for making this possible.”

Since UTEP will not raise tuition for TWH, the university needed other methods to pay for the state-of-the-art building.

Funds came through two legislative funding methods.

The first came after the Texas State Legislature granted $52.4 million for the building back in 2021.

The rest of the funds came from the UT System Board of Regents, who allocated $57.1 million to UTEP’s permanent university fund in 2023.

“We are particularly grateful to our legislative delegation for making this project a priority and to the Regents for matching the legislative funding,” Wilson said at the TWH groundbreaking ceremony last October. “We really need this.”

According to Senior Associate Vice President of Business Affairs Guadalupe Valencia, TWH and the Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace Center are currently within their respective budgets and on schedule.

TWH is expected to open in spring 2026.

Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela is the editor-in-chief and may be contacted at [email protected]; @rivasemmanuel2 on Instagram.