

The WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World Generational Plan looks forward a few decades, rather than a few years. We are setting the target high: By 2035, when WT reaches its 125th anniversary, we will have attained doctoral status in the Carnegie classifications of universities with a powerfully distinctive mission.
See the PlanThe University Strategic Plan, The Pioneering Spirit: Pursuit of WT 125, was informed and created from the governing guidance of the University Generational Plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
Learn More“West Texas A&M University has been committed to understanding the aspirations of the young people of this region for more than a century. Their hopes and dreams have always been an important part of our role as a regional university, and we will continue to meet those needs through academic purpose and service for the next 100 years. WT 125 is essentially a plan to do just that—create a future for West Texas A&M University that is responsive to the needs of the students, faculty and staff, the Panhandle and the world.”
—Walter V. Wendler
Serve the Panhandle and Its Heart – The I-27 Corridor and Route 66
ASPIRATION
The University’s relationship to its community is critical. Schools, industries, businesses and cultural activities all play a pivotal role in building a quality place to live and study. This is a mutually reinforcing phenomenon.
Embrace Our Community College Partnerships
ASPIRATION
The University must cultivate a modern version of itself and understand historical imperatives that affect its role in serving students in partnership with community colleges as a means to cost effectiveness and impact on various communities.
Build Undergraduate Academic Excellence
ASPIRATION
The quality of the student body, the quality of teaching and advising available to students and the quality of the faculty who work with undergraduates all contribute to the undergraduate academic experience. The strength of a Regional Research University is defined, in part, by the quality of the core humanities, arts and sciences programs offered. While our programs are sound, improvement and strength of identity are needed. Essential to success is recruiting high-achieving students. We need to engage the very best freshman scholars.
Focus Graduate Academics on Regional Opportunities
ASPIRATION
Exceptional faculty attract exceptional graduate students. The best universities have the most accomplished graduate students and research programs. It is that simple. Our move to doctoral status is driven and sustained by carefully conceived graduate programs. These programs must be responsive to the needs of the Texas Panhandle and similar geographic regions.
Learn and Live: Residential Education Experience
ASPIRATION
Identification with and capabilities for providing a complete experience that includes leadership development and life skills should never fall below any other priority of the institution.
Efficiently Utilize Resources
ASPIRATION
The quality to which we aspire will be achieved with appropriate material support. Resources may not lead to quality, but quality always leads to resources. Quality first.
Provide Access to Insight: Intellectual Resources
ASPIRATION
The core of the campus, at its heart, is the flow of intellectual resources, insight and wisdom. No aspiration of WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World will be achieved without substantial commitments in information technology, the Cornette Library, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum and other resources that power creative thinking and provide insights to students, faculty and the Panhandle community.
Engage and Empower Excellence in Human Capital
ASPIRATION
Faculty and staff are the University. The University must recruit, reward and retain the very best. The sine qua non of all faculty and staff at every level must be teaching and the support thereof in its diverse manifestations.
Foster Locally Responsive Research and Infrastructure
ASPIRATION
Sustain excellence in research, scholarship and creative activities that first address local needs and ideals. Excellence in research and scholarship will attract human and material resources. This is a critical goal.
Purposefully Lead, Govern and Organize
ASPIRATION
Great universities exist where there is enlightened leadership. This is true at the state, system and university levels. It is true from within and from without. It comes from every rank of university life: staff, faculty and administration. No segment has the corner on the market of innovation and insight. Recognition of this will make WT better positioned to lead.
WT 125 Scholarship Endowment
The scholarship is an investment in students from the top 26 counties of the Panhandle who desire to focus their study and career on the aspirations and needs of the citizens that the University serves and who possess a spirit of self-reliance, courage, resourcefulness and a desire to be part of something larger than themselves.
Make a DonationTheme Groups
- Theme Group Report Summary
- The Panhandle and Its Heart – The I-27 Corridor
- Our Relationship to Community Colleges
- Undergraduate Academics
- Graduate Academics
- Residential Education Experience
- Leadership Governance and Organization
- Financial Resources
- Intellectual Resources
- Human Capital
- Research and Infrastructure
Data Analysis
White Papers
- Cost Differentials: Online and On-Campus Study
- Regional Research University
- Diversity
- The Panhandle
- Community College Transfer
- Enrollment in Higher Education
- Pipeline Programs
- College of Arts and Sciences
- Responsiveness to Industry
- Residential Life
- Residential Living Cost Analysis
- Student Debt
- Information Technology
- Cornette Library
- Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
- Affiliation Benefits
WT 125 Books
Generational Plans
Academic
- Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences
- Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business
- College of Education and Social Sciences
- College of Nursing and Health Sciences
- School of Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics
- Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities
Non-Academic

WT has been the source of higher education in the Texas Panhandle for more than 100 years. Our long-standing commitment has always been to serve both the students and the region of the Panhandle.