Running head: GLOBAL ISSUES REPORT 1

Global Issues Report:

Oil Exploration

Daniel Orellana

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS-1301

Dr. Vierra

November 8, 2018
GLOBAL ISSUES REPORT 2

Abstract

The global issue presented in this paper are oil exploration and its connection to

education. The connection can severely improve a nation/area’s educational housing and study.
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Global Issues Report:

Oil Exploration

Oil exploration is the search for deposits of oil beneath the Earth’s surface. This

exploration leads to the discovery of oil and eventually creates the potential for a large income of

wealth. Using this wealth to improve upon educational systems can create a drastic advantage in

educational standards and wellbeing. The improvement can be seen in the difference between the

UT system’s PUF with its contribution to its schools and other schools who have failed to

provide proper funding causing their educational system to be subpar.

Discussion

The UT and Texas A&M systems have been able to stay (mostly) financially stable

because of the PUF. According to Smyrl (2010), the PUF provides financial support to institution

in the UT and Texas A&M University Systems, and allows the schools named to use money to

improve upon their educational foundation with money from the PUF and not suffer too much

economically (p. 1). Like the PUF, Saudi Arabia makes a large amount of revenue because of

their wealth in natural resources, but unlike the Texas and its PUF, Saudi Arabia use to use their

revenue from oil to create private wealth and keep it from its educational systems (Khatib 2011,

p. 76). The backlash from this had caused Saudi Arabia’s living standards to drop because

without proper education, the general public can’t gain and create knowledge (p. 75). This causes

all the money and knowledge to be restricted to the high class and narrows what could be

discovered by essentially restricting the general population by lowing educational standards. The

UT and Texas A&M systems are flourishing because of the PUF and if the Saudi Arabian

government takes in Texas’ footsteps and spread more money into its education (Figure 2), they

could excel in education and create new potential for their entire country.
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The PUF helps UTEP and directly benefits us and our campus by providing buildings and

technology for us to thrive. According to Torres (1981), the PUF contributed to the construction

of the Sun Bowl, the new business school, and the Library (p. 4) which is a big project to put

under way and costs more than most renovations would (Salazar 1973, p. 4). These projects

would not have been as feasible without contributions from the PUF. A library is a hard

renovation to complete due to all the complexities that it causes. This shows that the PUF is used

to improve UTEP by providing us with funds to complete projects.

UTEP receives revenue from the PUF in order to equip itself for bettering our education.

According to Salazar (1973), The PUF has given money to furnish buildings and create greater

educational possibilities by using the funds to furnish the building with the materials they need.

Sometimes the money is not entirely enough to furnish the whole building (p. 4), but the PUF

still contributes which causes the university to have to spend less and have less economic

problems than most schools (Natalicio 1989, p. 8). One example of a building that was funded

and had its furnishing funded by the PUF is the Physical Science Building (Figure 1).

Demonstrating that the university is blessed with the PUF and so are its students.

UTEP has been impacted heavily by oil exploration through the PUF. The land leases

originally given to the UT system were not considered extremely profitable because at the time,

Texas was considered oil-barren. According to Smith (2010), after the Texas Oil and Land

Company was established, the corporation dug for oil and founded their first drill, Santa Rita No.

1, the drill turned out to be a huge success and since the well was on UT land, they get a piece of

its profits (p. 1). The profits from the various wells that sprang up from the discovery of oil in

Texas became to be the PUF, and those profits were used to better the UT and Texas A&M

systems and provide for its schools. Haigh (1986) dug up and put together all the documents that
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made it possible for people to easily research the topic of oil exploration in Texas, the PUF’s

origins, and how profitable it is. The UT system found luck in its land leases and oil exploration,

which have led to the PUF’s financial wellness and UT’s thriving educational system because

they can provide the things their schools need to further and expand education.

Money from the PUF will continue to help and be able to help Texas A&M, UT, and the

schools within its system. Williamson (2015) states that the PUF can and will continue to thrive

even with dips in its oil prices because it is still producing enough and revenue to keep alive. The

PUF is still profiting and authorizes $750 million for a commercial paper program and covers

about $2.8 billion in debt between UT and Texas A&M systems to help improve educational

integrity (p. 12). According to Richardson (2005), The PUF is extremely profitable and split

between Texas A&M and the UT system, the fund is still able to support them with a vast

amount of money to cover improvements to their educational institutions such as building,

renovations, furnishing, technology, and lab equipment (p. 5). With the PUF making vast

amounts of money, it can support and improve upon all the schools within its grasp.

Equipment and technology have been provided to UTEP via the funds of the PUF.

Arleigh (1974), states that the UT system has provided roughly $28 million for programs since

she worked at UTEP. Arleigh (1974) also states that the PUF was able to provide about $800,000

to equip the biological science and engineering buildings (p. 3). According to Natalicio (2008),

allocations from bonds by the PUF are being used to expand and upgrade existing facilities to

support growth and new programs (p. 1). PUF money has allowed UTEP to be equipped with

current and new technologies in order to keep a high educational standard and practice.

There was a fight for the PUF and which educational system should get how much (UT

and Texas A&M). This argument was difficult to resolve especially with the addition of revenue
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provided by the newly discovered Santa Rita No. 1, each system believe it was entitled to the

PUF (Richardson 2005). This argument could have left the Texas’ educational system a mess,

but thankfully the PUF ended up being split 1/3 to the Texas A&M system and two thirds up to

the UT system. If this debate had gone sideways and a system was left out it could have had a

huge impact on what our educational system currently is, and we may not have access to the

things we currently do. Due to the outcome though, both systems have improved their

educational systems with contribution to the PUF such as the Physical Science Building (Salazar

1973). Without the agreement to split the way the PUF contributes its money, we may not have

flourished as much as we have.

Properly funding Texas’ Educational System through the PUF has allowed for great

achievements and high educational standards. Saudi Arabia has been slowly realizing their

mistakes in not creating and funding proper education and have slowly been increasing their

educational budgets (Khatib 2011, p. 75). As a result of slightly increasing the budget there are

more relatively strong increases in educational and human resource development expenditures.

Funding education can drastically help when the funds are used properly, Salazar (1973, p. 4) has

displayed this with his comments on how much the University of Texas at El Paso has benefited

and been able to continue giving a great education with proper funding from the PUF and other

sources. The educational field needs funding, without it improvements in technology and

creation will slowly come to a standstill because there will be no money to give to the people

who want to try and improve upon things that could benefit people to make more money. By

funding education, we can find more efficient ways to do things, such as oil exploration and

mining, which will lead to more money being able to bee obtained and circulated to more

knowledge.
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Conclusion

The PUF impacts the UTEP campus in many ways, some more appreciated than others,

but it is important to know how we came to have the things we have because there are other

schools that aren’t as lucky as us to have such things. People may not know the great deal that

the PUF has done for UTEP, but with a little effort it is easy to see that we have benefitted

greatly from it.

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References

Haigh, Berte R. Land, Oil, and Education. 1986.

Interview with Diana Natalicio by Charles Martin, 1989, "Interview no. 773," Institute of Oral

History, University of Texas at El Paso

Natalicio, P. D. 2008 Convocation President Diana Natalicio.

Negarde, M. L. (1995, July 26) Tuition. The Pospector, (p. 1)

Richardson, S. R. (2005). Oil, Power, and Universities: Political Struggle and Academic

Interview with Oscar H. McMahan by David Salazar, 1973, "Interview no. 97," Institute of Oral

History, University of Texas at El Paso.

Smith JC. BIG LAKE OILFIELD. TSHA. 2010.

Smyrl VE. PERMANENT UNIVERSITY FUND. 2010.

Torres, M. (1981, August 6) College Funding Problem Unanswered. The Prospector, (p. 4)

Interview with Arleigh B. Templeton by Dale L. Walker, 1974, "Interview no. 174," Institute of

Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso.

Williamson, R. (2015). Texas PUF Will Grow, Even With Lower Oil Prices: Moody’s. Bond

Buyer, 1, 1. Retrieved from http://0-

search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=100911622&sit

e=eds-live&scope=site
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Figures

Figure 1. The Physical Science Building was in part paid for by the PUF.

Figure 2. This diagram represents how the flow of income is spread using the PUF