Rebuild Texas Fund awards $100,000 to UHV for generator
A $100,000 disaster preparation grant from the Rebuild Texas Fund has allowed the University of Houston-Victoria to purchase a backup power generator to help supply power to Jaguar Hall Dining during a power outage.
The generator, located behind Jaguar Hall, 2705 Houston Highway, will be able to power UHV’s dining hall to help meet basic power and communication needs of the university community, especially students who might be stranded on campus during a natural disaster.
“If there is a disaster, we have to be ready to take care of our students,” said Jesse Pisors, vice president for advancement and external relations. “This generator is a huge help and very valuable in our preparation for possible future disasters.”
The generator will be able to provide backup power to UHV’s main food service operations so that dining operations such as food storage and cooking will continue to work to serve UHV students, faculty and staff.
The generator also would be able to serve first responders, emergency coordinators and the community, Pisors said. Jaguar Hall Dining has space to serve about 300 people at a time.
The Rebuild Texas Fund supports the economic recovery of Texas communities devastated by Hurricane Harvey. The fund is a collaborative project of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation, funded through the support of more than 30,000 corporate and individual donors.
“With this new generator, the university can be assured that it will have backup power for emergency communications, lights and air conditioning,” said Cristina Cornejo, program manager for the Rebuild Texas Fund. “We appreciate the work UHV put into their project proposal and the forethought of making the university stronger for future disasters.”
This is the first disaster preparedness grant the Rebuild Texas Fund has awarded UHV. The university previously received a $100,000 grant from the Fund in 2018 to help UHV students with hurricane recovery, and $100,000 in student scholarships via the Qatar Harvey Fund in spring 2019.
In addition to recovery and rebuilding efforts, the foundation also awards grants to support the purchase of items such as generators, emergency communication equipment and boats. The foundation awarded $1.8 million this year to 31 disaster preparation projects, including the new generator at UHV.
“The Rebuild Texas Fund has been extremely supportive of UHV since Hurricane Harvey,” UHV President Bob Glenn said. “We couldn’t be more grateful to the Rebuild Texas Fund for the multiple grants they have donated to our university to help our students and our community.”
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
