UT Tyler Office of Marketing and Communications

UT Tyler Receives Gift to Enhance Retail Management Education

December 14, 2012

Media Contact:  Hannah Buchanan
Editor/Writer–Strategic Communications & Media Relations
Marketing and Communications
The University of Texas at Tyler
903.539.7196 (cell)

December 14, 2012

The University of Texas at Tyler has received a $10,000 gift from the Texas Retailers Education Foundation and Brookshire Grocery Company to enhance retail management education, Dr. Harold Doty, College of Business and Technology dean, announced.

The college will use the TREF $5,000 donation and matching gift from Brookshire Grocery Company to enhance educational offerings and innovative, hands-on experiential learning for students in the Retail Lab, which opened November 2011.

“This gift from the Texas Retailers Association and the matching gift from the Brookshire Grocery Company will allow us to move forward with educational products targeted for the retail sector of the economy far more rapidly than we had originally planned,” said Dr. Kerri Camp, UT Tyler Center for Retail Enterprises director. “The continuing support we are receiving through our partnerships with both the TREF and Brookshire’s is critical in our efforts to develop cutting-edge retail programs that allow students to develop skill sets necessary for management careers in the retail sector. We have already developed new courses and program offerings that will meet the workforce needs for this growing sector of the Texas economy.”

This opportunity to partner with TRA and Brookshire Grocery Company on a program will help keep an educated and contributing workforce available to manage and operate retail outlets more effectively and efficiently, she added.

TRA is a trade association representing retail outlets across the state. Its mission is to bea strong advocate for the retail industry and provide value-added services and programs pertinent to their members. The Texas Retailers Education Foundation, the education arm of TRA, acts to expand awareness of the retail industry to current and potential employees as well as in the community, to educate fellow retailers on key business practices and issues through roundtable discussions, workshops or seminars and to improve the Texas workforce through the funding of scholarships and educational opportunities.

For more information, visit www.txretailers.org.

One of the 15 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler offers excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service. More than 80 undergraduate and graduate degree programs are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of almost 7,000 high-ability students at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine.