Sul Ross State University’s decision to discontinue its traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program is raising questions about the future of students who enrolled expecting to become nurses, the university’s investment in nursing education and its plans for a downtown Alpine building purchased to house health sciences programs.
The closure comes less than two years after university officials publicly announced that the former TransPecos Bank building on Fifth Street would become home to the College of Health Sciences, including nursing and kinesiology.
In a November 2024 column published in the Alpine Avalanche, Sul Ross officials described plans to repurpose two recently purchased downtown properties, including the former bank building.
The university also sought state funding for a separate health sciences renovation project that would include nursing classrooms, clinical skills laboratories and simulation equipment.
Now, the university is moving to close its traditional nursing program after the Texas Board of Nursing placed it on conditional approval in April because of problems involving nursing licensure examination performance and regulatory compliance.
The decision has left some students reconsidering their futures in Alpine.
Arianna Moritz moved approximately 1,300 miles from Lebanon, Ohio, to attend Sul Ross on a rodeo scholarship and pursue a nursing degree.
According to a Nov. 6 report by Libby Foster in The Sul Ross Skyline, the university’s student newspaper, Moritz initially received assurances from a visiting speaker that a two-year suspension of the nursing program would not derail her education.
A professor subsequently advised her that she should consider transferring as soon as the following semester if she remained committed to becoming a nurse.
The conflicting messages left Moritz searching for another university offering both a nursing program and a rodeo team, along with financial assistance comparable to her Sul Ross scholarship.
Moritz told the student newspaper that the way the situation was handled was particularly troubling given its potential consequences for students’ futures.
State regulators had already restricted admissions
Records from the Texas Board of Nursing show that the university’s nursing program had been experiencing regulatory difficulties before the closure decision.
On April 23, the board changed the program’s status from initial approval with warning to conditional approval.
The board prohibited Sul Ross from admitting or starting additional students in the program while it remained on conditional status.
The university was required to achieve at least an 80% first-time passing rate on the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nurses during 2026 to qualify for reconsideration of its approval status.
The board also required the university to submit an evaluation of corrective measures by July 1.
Failure to meet the requirements could have resulted in withdrawal of the program’s approval.
The university subsequently notified state regulators of its intention to voluntarily close the program. The closure notification appeared on the agenda for the Texas Board of Nursing’s Oct. 22 meeting.
University purchased downtown building for health sciences
The closure raises additional questions because Sul Ross had recently invested in expanding its health sciences facilities.
In November 2024, the university announced that its newly established College of Health Sciences would occupy the former TransPecos Bank building at Fifth Street and Avenue E in downtown Alpine.
The university said the college would include nursing, kinesiology and other health sciences programs. Dean Culpepper was named dean of the new college, and classes were expected to begin in the downtown building in January 2025.
The announcement followed the university’s purchase of the former bank building and the Porter’s Grocery property, which was designated for performing arts programs.
The university’s legislative appropriations request for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 also described a proposed 9,016-square-foot renovation to accommodate health sciences instruction, including nursing classrooms and simulation laboratories.
That proposal was separate from the downtown property purchase.
It remains unclear how much Sul Ross spent acquiring and preparing the former bank building, how much of that investment was specifically attributable to nursing, and whether the closure will change the building’s intended use.
Because the College of Health Sciences also includes other academic programs, the closure does not necessarily mean the downtown facility will no longer serve its intended educational purpose.
Students face uncertain future
According to The Sul Ross Skyline, Culpepper said the university currently has 10 students in its junior nursing cohort and 13 in its senior cohort.
He was unable to immediately provide the number of students pursuing prerequisite coursework in preparation for entering the nursing program.
That leaves the total number of students affected by the decision unclear.
Texas Board of Nursing guidelines require institutions voluntarily closing nursing programs to explain how enrolled students will complete their education.
Programs generally must maintain educational standards until enrolled students graduate or establish arrangements allowing students to transfer to other approved programs.
The university’s website continued to advertise both its traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and a separate RN-to-BSN completion program when reviewed. The status of the latter program was not established by the closure notice concerning the traditional program.
The situation also comes after Sul Ross received a $116,964 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board intended to support nursing recruitment, retention and enrollment.
The university announced that funding in 2025, saying it would support simulation equipment, professional development and classroom technology.
The grant’s stated benchmarks included increasing nursing enrollment by 10% by August 2026.
The university has not publicly accounted in the reviewed materials for how the closure affects that enrollment objective or the grant-funded investments.
The questions extend beyond the university’s finances.
Sul Ross established its nursing program to help address the shortage of health care professionals in the rural Big Bend region, where students seeking comparable nursing education may face substantial travel or relocation costs.
The nearest alternatives include programs in Odessa and El Paso, both more than 100 miles from Alpine.
For students such as Moritz, the closure could mean leaving a community, athletic team and scholarship arrangement they had expected to maintain throughout their college education.
For the university, the decision raises questions about how a program established to address regional workforce needs deteriorated to the point of closure just as Sul Ross was investing in facilities intended to support health sciences education.
Among the questions remaining are what will happen to the downtown property, how previously awarded nursing funds were spent, whether students will receive assistance transferring and what plans the university has to meet the region’s nursing education needs.
The reviewed records do not establish that the downtown property purchase or grant expenditures were improper. They do, however, document investments made to support nursing education shortly before the university moved to close its traditional nursing program.
