The Texas Board of Nursing will meet Oct. 22 to take up notice that Sul Ross State University is voluntarily closing the bachelor’s degree nursing program it opened in Alpine five years ago — a decision the university has not announced publicly and the posted agenda does not explain. Written comments were due Oct. 19, but the board still hears speakers in person at 1 p.m. Oct. 22.
The program’s short life is on the board’s own record. Regents added the degree to the university’s inventory in 2020, and the first class started the next year, pitched as bringing nursing education to the Big Bend. The program was already on warning status by late 2025; summaries of the board’s April 2026 meeting record that it was moved to conditional approval after three straight years in which fewer than 80 percent of first-time candidates passed the national licensing exam. The Dispatch could not open the board’s packets for those meetings to confirm the figures. The university’s nursing page still advertises the program, with admission requirements revised in June.
How many students are enrolled now, and when the doors close, are not in the posted notice. The nearest alternatives are about 150 miles away in Odessa and 220 in El Paso. The state is projected to be short more than 56,000 full-time registered nurses by 2036, and the reason is partly upstream: a state workforce survey counted 954 vacant faculty positions across Texas nursing programs as of September 2025, with about one in seven pre-licensure teaching jobs unfilled. A small rural program that could not hold its pass rates is that arithmetic in one town.
Much else is queued. The board will weigh changes to the rule setting what every Texas nurse must do to keep a license current — 20 hours of education every two years or a national certification, plus required topics — weeks after a new statewide electronic tracking system for that paperwork took effect. The proposed text is not public. The board also takes up a survey visit to Hill College’s vocational nursing program, elects a vice-president, sets next year’s calendar, and votes on 61 proposed orders and 19 cases back from the state’s administrative court; no findings have been made in any of them.
A pending-litigation list, taken up behind closed doors if at all, carries a July suit by the Texas Nurse Practitioners association and two nurse practitioners challenging the requirement that advanced practice nurses hold an agreement with a physician in order to practice. The notice names the board’s executive director as a defendant in her official capacity, alongside the Texas Medical Board’s. Board members meet separately in a retreat the afternoon of Oct. 21.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:00 AM, Thursday, October 22, 2026, running through October 23. A board retreat precedes it at 1:30 PM, Wednesday, October 21. TRD 2026006018 was filed October 9 at 2:38 p.m.
- Where
- George H.W. Bush Building, Room 4.300, 1801 Congress Ave., Austin. The retreat is in Room 7.102.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Board of Nursing — 15 members appointed by the governor under the statute that sets its membership: seven practicing nurses, three nurse educators and five public members, serving staggered six-year terms. President Kathy Shipp of Lubbock, who has led the board since 2013.
- Format
- A two-day meeting with a long consent agenda. Closed sessions on litigation are reserved throughout. Open forum for public speakers is at 1 p.m. Oct. 22, three minutes each.
- Live video
- None listed. The notice provides for in-person attendance only.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · retreat notice
Board members
- Kathy Shipp — president; Lubbock; family nurse practitioner; advanced practice seat.
- Allison P. Edwards — vice-president; Bellaire; nursing faculty, UTHealth Houston.
- Dru Riddle — Fort Worth; nurse anesthetist and TCU professor.
- Elizabeth Adamson — Mission; clinical operations director, HCA Rio Grande Regional.
- Carol Kay Hawkins-Garcia — San Antonio; nurse consultant, American Consultants.
- Kathy Leader-Horn — Granbury; vocational nurse; quality assurance, Grace Hospice.
- Nancy Lewis — Buchanan Dam; vocational nurse; rural health specialist, Ascension Seton.
- Melissa Schat — Granbury; vocational nurse, Cook Children’s rheumatology.
- Kathy Boswell — Mineral Wells; dean, Weatherford College; associate-degree education seat.
- Ken D. Johnson — San Angelo; vocational nursing instructor, Howard College.
- Manny Cavazos — Manor; public member; attorney and certified public accountant.
- Daryl Chambers — Grand Prairie; public member; financial representative.
- Mazie Mathews Jamison — Dallas; public member; retired hospital public policy officer.
- Mary Grace Landrum — Houston; public member; leadership consultant.
- Rickey “Rick” Williams — Killeen; public member; retired Army fire chief.
Names, seats, cities and biographies are from the board’s own member page, read October 12, and cross-checked against Governor Abbott’s appointment releases of 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025. The 15 seats match the statutory structure exactly. Five terms expire January 31, 2027, including the vice-president’s, which is why a vice-president is being elected now for a term beginning after that date; a member may continue serving until replaced. No minutes were available to cross-check recent attendance.