By: Libby Foster, Skyline Copy-chief
ALPINE - Arianna Moritz had moved all the way from Lebanon, Ohio, to Alpine, Texas, for two non-negotiable reasons: to ride on a rodeo scholarship for Coach CJ Aragon and to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. A visiting speaker at Sul Ross State University recently reassured Moritz during her Nursing Seminar that she shouldn't worry about the two-year nursing program suspension. Now her professor is sharing a contradictory message that has shattered the life she built 1,300 miles from home.
The rodeo scholarship provided the financial aid that made going to school 23 hours away possible. She had just settled in, made good friends, built a routine, became accustomed to college classes, and pictured the next four years in this small mountain town she now called home.
When her nursing professor returned, Arianna asked, “If the program is under its current suspension, should we as freshmen be concerned?”
The response she heard was vastly different from the reassurance she had received from the guest speaker only a week before. Her professor told her, “If nursing is your only passion and you will not be open to switching majors and future career paths, you need to transfer schools as soon as next semester.”
The termination of the popular nursing program comes at a time when the university is wrestling with retention and financial issues that led to a recent seven percent budget cut.
Navigating this situation would have been much easier if Moritz hadn’t been in the rodeo. She cannot just transfer anywhere as she must consider more than her major. She must find a 4-year school with a nursing program as well as a rodeo team, and she needs a scholarship again to make school affordable.
Arianna’s Coaches were in the dark just as much as she was, devastated by the news of losing a team member because of an apparent lack in communication from the university.
Sul Ross had known about the nursing program being cut since July. To help navigate the situation, Moritz met with another member of Sul Ross faculty to discuss her options.
“For something that can be so detrimental to someone’s future, I don’t think that should be the way it goes,” Moritz said.
She is now looking for a school to transfer to next year, leaving behind her team, friends, and a town she has grown to love. Nothing is guaranteed for her future right now, and she’s facing a heartbreaking, frustrating reality in such a short time.
Sul Ross State University Dean of Health Sciences, Dean Culpepper, said that there are currently, “10 students in the junior cohort and 13 in the senior cohort for the nursing program.” Surprisingly, he did not know the number of pre-nursing students. “I will have to look into that,” he said.
The number of affected pre-nursing students is still unknown.