Spotlight On: Glenn Simmons, Executive Director & Campus Dean, Wayland Baptist University – San Antonio Campus
July 2025 — Glenn Simmons, executive director and campus dean at Wayland Baptist University, spoke with Invest: about why San Antonio is the ideal location for the university and how they fit into the demographics of the area. He also explains the growing role of technology in education, and how the university attracts new talent and students.
What makes San Antonio an ideal location for Wayland, and how does this campus differentiate itself from other cities?
San Antonio is a good location for us because here we’re heavily oriented toward our military and veterans. There’s a big veteran population here because of nearby military installations. We have campuses at three of those locations and offer classes and meetings with students there. Our business involvement is with Randolph Air Force Base, which is just a few miles down the road. We like working with our veterans, and there are many veterans here, and we think we offer them a great service.
What are some of the most significant achievements and key milestones over the past year?
We’ve partnered with the Bear County veterans and military committee and allow them to use two offices here. We recently met with them about offering a third office. One of the milestones is our partnership with the Bear County Veterans and Military Association. We received a grant to add a licensed professional counselor, who is also a veteran and a graduate of our counseling program, to offer free counseling to any of our veterans who are students.
How would you describe the overall sentiment toward higher education in central Texas, and what trends are you seeing in the choices students are making?
60% of our students are over the age of 35, but we’re seeing a decline in the number of people who are over 30 years old and trying to go back to school and get a degree. Several economic and political issues are affecting this. Normally, adults go to school to set themselves up for a promotion. The economy has been good, and economic stability often leads to fewer adults pursuing higher education.
Are there any specific programming or ways to involve veterans’ previous expertise and skill set to align with the workforce needs of the region?
Our school of nursing has seen about a 40% increase in the number of students. We offer five different medical certifications, including pharmacy tech, EKG tech, coding and billing, CMA, and phlebotomy tech. Many people in those tech courses don’t have the time to get a degree, but they can take those classes for two months and get a medical certification to help them enter the field, make a decent salary, and set them up to move ahead in the field. We’ve had a big push on criminal justice and have a strong connection with the Bear County Sheriff’s Office and the local police departments. We allow our facility to be used by those departments for recruiting and training.
How are you adopting emerging technologies into your curriculum for not only students, but to create efficiencies with faculty and staff?
We just received a grant through our nursing school to upgrade the technology in the nursing school. We’re going to more of a virtual classroom. We’ve partnered with an organization that brings students from India to study here. We’ve designated a room to hold up to 50 people for a technology center, a space students and faculty can use to help them keep up to date with the latest technology. We’re working diligently to incorporate AI into the curriculum. We developed some AI in the class I am currently teaching. I had a faculty meeting recently in which we talked about how to use AI in our latest online platform. They’re developing more AI there, and I’ve been training the faculty to use it and make their classroom more robust and resourceful.
With many senior teachers retiring, how do you see the talent pool for faculty in San Antonio, and what strategies are you implementing to attract and retain top talent?
We use our existing faculty to help attract top talent. When I have faculty meetings, we talk to them about the colleagues in their fields who are interested in teaching, and we’ve picked up four or five new faculty members last semester who are more current in their fields. They’re already in their field and bring an array of real-world experience. For example, one of our new faculty members is one of the chiefs with the Bear County Sheriff’s Office. He has a doctorate in criminal justice and brings real-world experience with academic balance.
What strategies are in place to continue to ensure financial sustainability while also offering high-quality education?
We get a grant from the Baptist Health System for our nursing and tuition assistance for students in our counseling program. The other big area is law enforcement, and we have a robust law enforcement scholarship. We hired a new development leader and are looking at grants for technology to help bolster our computers in our classrooms and staff.
Looking towards the future, what are some of the key opportunities for growth you see, and what are your top priorities for the next 2-3 years?
Northeast San Antonio presents significant growth opportunities, with expansion efforts targeting the rapidly growing New Braunfels area. Our marketing within the police department has been improving, and we just developed a new grant for police officer scholarships. We have a new grant for military students, so they have no out-of-pocket expense. The Department of Defense covers their tuition, and we have money to cover their books and fees. If you’re a military member, you can go to school here and have no out-of-pocket expenses.
Why is it important for the community to understand your efforts to keep costs down for students?
We’re aiming to be more of an integral part of the community because people in America think higher education is a negative rather than a positive, that they’ll leave with a tremendous amount of debt, or any political bias. To combat that, we have to show our local community we have ways to keep costs down, that we don’t try to burden our students with additional debt, and we’re focused on career-oriented education. We do that with scholarships and by using people who are knowledgeable in their field. When you walk across our stage, you get more than just a diploma; you get an education that will serve you in your chosen field.
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