Mexican nationals. Between 1998 and 2013, the university's budget increased from about $65 million to over $400 million, and research expenditures increased ten-fold. The school has expanded its doctoral program offerings from one in 1988 to 22 in 2019. As of February 2016, Natalicio had served as university president longer than any sitting president at a U.S. major public research university. She was criticized for low four-year graduation rates during her tenure (13 percent in 2013, compared to 2.6 percent in 1999), but she said that four-year graduation rates were not the most important measures of a university's success. Natalicio served as president of UTEP for 31 years before she stepped down in August 2019. The University of Texas System Board of Regents named her President Emerita that month. Awards and honors Natalicio won the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education in 1997. She was inducted into the 1998–99 class of the Texas Women's Hall of Fame. In 2006, Natalicio received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2011, the Mexican government recognized Natalicio with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest award given to non-Mexicans. She was the 2013 recipient of the Hesburgh Award from TIAA-CREF. She received the 2015 Carnegie Corporation of New York Academic Leadership Award. In 2001, Natalicio received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Smith College. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Georgetown University in 2011. In 2019, Natalicio received the Clark Kerr Award from the UC Berkeley Academic Senate for distinguished leadership in higher education. Service In 2013, Natalicio was elected president of the board of directors for the American Council on Education. She served on the Committee on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science and Engineering Workforce Pipeline of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Natalicio was on the board of directors for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. She was a principal investigator in a National Science Foundation program to increase participation in the STEM fields. References 1939 births 2021 deaths People from St. Louis Saint Louis University alumni University of Texas at El Paso faculty University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni Women heads of universities and colleges American academic administrators Presidents of the University of Texas at El Paso