When families think about where to attend college, cost is always one of the first factors weighed.

Alongside cost, however, families need to research the quality of the degree. It is the equation of cost plus quality that can determine the value of the degree. And the value of the degree is what most benefits a graduate.

While keeping costs steady at MSU we are working hard to increase our value in a number of ways. I hope that you find these details meaningful, whether you are a proud graduate of MSU, a family member of a graduate, or considering attendance at our university.

Senior nursing students Courtney Brady, left, and Toni Barrow make their way to class in the new health sciences center, Centennial Hall, on the first day of classes, Fall 2019.(Photo: TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS)

The much-anticipated opening of Centennial Hall, home to programs in our Gunn College of Health Sciences and Human Services, began 2019 on a high note. The $42 million project was part of the $58.4 million in tuition revenue bond funds appropriated by the state in 2015, and marked the largest designation of capital construction funds in the history of the University.

This project was instrumental in forging new alliances with Shimadzu Medical Systems USA and B-Line Medical LLC, as well as renewing our longstanding local partnership with United Regional. The Shimadzu School of Radiologic Sciences at MSU Texas is the first corporate and public educational partnership of its type in radiological sciences.

Through these alliances, our students and faculty will work and train with state-of-the-art equipment and software that will set them apart in their fields. The building now stands as confirmation of the trust and support our state has placed in us to provide an educated workforce and stimulate economic development across our region and beyond.

The new Centennial Hall at Midwestern State University opens Friday afternoon and will house the nursing, radiolocal and other health sciences education programs.(Photo: TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS)

Expansion to select doctoral programs has emerged as a new interest of MSU Texas graduates. We are now pursuing approval for not one, but two, doctoral programs. Programs in radiologic sciences and educational leadership would be the first for our university, and the doctoral program in radiologic science would the first of its kind in the United States.

Alongside this change for our graduate endeavors are our undergraduate signature minors to respond to student interests and workforce needs in fields such as cybersecurity, educational design and learning management, musical theater, and organizational psychology to name a few. Such advancements help us stay true to the value we know students receive from our liberal arts foundations; strides in our professional degrees show the quality of this important combination.

Affordability is imperative for our MSU families and no program does more to make a degree available to first-generation students than our Priddy Scholars Program. Middle-income families across the region have benefited from this freedom from the cost of higher education given to our students.

Priddy Scholars do not have to divide their time and attention between the workplace and the classroom, instead single-mindedly pursuing studies, participating in campus events, preparing for leadership and service roles in the community, engaging in international study, and selecting a career. Priddy Scholars stay enrolled at MSU Texas, with 90 percent completing their degrees without interruption. What we are learning from this program is helping us to design programming to help all students be successful and keep all MSU Texas degrees affordable.

Through the generosity of our donors, new fellowships and a professorship have been introduced to support faculty activities in the arts and humanities that enhance research, artistic endeavors, and teaching. These programs not only reward our faculty for work in their disciplines, but also serve to inspire our students.

Like the explosion of interest in the health sciences stimulated by the opening of Centennial Hall, the addition of Legacy Hall in 2016 led to enhanced support for our growing residential population. Just last month, we acquired property for our procurement service operations at the corner of Midwestern Parkway and Maplewood Avenue that will similarly open spaces for converting the Daniel Building, located in the heart of campus, into the Bridwell Activities Center.

We will begin construction this fall on the Cannedy Greek Commons, an initiative to provide space for the Universitys growing Greek Life population. Once this phase of the project is well established we hope to later add offices for our student government association and student affairs departments, as well as meeting rooms, a dining auxiliary, and a 150-seat theater to complete the activities center.

We are nearing completion of renovations to Moffett Library and are excited to see the transformation of this learning space. While libraries are still an important component in the campus experience, how students use those spaces has changed through the years.

We have added study areas on the first and second floors, designed and equipped to meet todays student needs. Additionally, enhanced tutoring and academic support services will be available for our student body.

Finally, we understand that while we serve students first, as a public university we also serve our community, particularly when it comes to providing a trained workforce in critical areas. Last January, we welcomed the Center for Nonprofit Management and Leadership as part of our Dillard College of Business Administration.

By expanding upon our resources such as faculty, students, alumni and facilities, we will work to advance the success of nonprofits and our community. In fact, nonprofits are so critical to our community that we have introduced a nonprofit management minor at the University. The minor is open to all majors and builds on the financial and organizational skills needed in the nonprofit sector.

Like the Center for Nonprofit Management and Leadership, the new North Central Texas AHEC center on campus, under the direction of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, serves an outreach to address community-based needs for health information. Their mission is to recruit, educate and sustain a health professions workforce committed to underserved and rural populations. We are pleased to host this center on our campus.

Also a leader in health-care outreach, the Wilson School of Nursing at MSU Texas is supporting the second phase of the Medically Underserved Specialization for Advanced Nursing Graduate Students by way of outside funding. The project received a $2.7 million continuation grant that prepares our family nurse practitioner students. Through this federal support, our students will be employed in primary care areas with academic and clinical training experiences in rural and underserved populations. A new focus on mental health medical management will further complete this valuable and competitive preparatory experience for nursing students.

And finally, the Kimbell School of Geosciences is now partnering with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to establish the Oklahoma-Texas Water Science Center located in our Bolin Science Hall. This partnership is a natural fit that will provide opportunities for the USGS staff and MSU Texas faculty and students to acquire a better understanding of local groundwater and surface water issues.

When MSU Texas launched our strategic plan three years ago with a bold vision to build bridges for a vibrant future we could see our centennial celebration in 2022 on a distant horizon. Our work toward promoting a strong university community, pursuing new student populations, creating a destination residential campus, and stimulating a culture of engagement was on full display in 2019, and it propels us toward the boundless opportunities ahead for 2020 and beyond.

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Progress: New initiatives at MSU Texas enhance the value of students degrees - Times Record News