Support the time-honored tradition!

TCM Day is the UTEP celebration of St. Patrick, the patron saint of engineers. The TCM Day tradition dates to 1920, when UTEP was known as the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy, or TCM. To date, TCM Day is celebrated on campus every March in observance of St. Patrick’s Day. The tradition is an annual rite of passage to initiate new engineers and geologists into the Order of St. Patrick. TCM Day activities are open to all students, regardless of their major. All participants who complete the day's activities become a part of the ever-growing Mighty Guard of St. Pat. The TCM Guard is the bloodline that keeps the tradition alive every year to make TCM Day happen. Please join the College of Engineering Alumni Network and consider donating to the future of TCM Day. Your gift will help maintain the strength of our long-lasting tradition and annual celebration.  

The whole intention is (for TCM Day) to (include all) incoming freshmen and anyone who has not had this orientation. It gives you an identity with something that is a rite of passage. It gives the kids a matter of pride in telling the world, telling Texas, telling the city, telling the nation that we're really a special university. These traditions are really important. —Ann Gates, Ph.D., Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

TCM (Day) is a tradition (at) the root of this university, where we came from; how it started. To not forget that we are a mining school first. And that is why we are the Miners! We want to make sure that M on the mountain is as visible as possible because that is the core of UTEP, where it was the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy. It really gives the students a sense of where UTEP comes from and where their roots lie as a mining school. Where we started and why we're here. The way of becoming a Miner and not just the sense of being here at UTEP, but actually being a miner and (using) mining equipment is a really cool tradition. They can take that to the work force and be proud of where they came from.  —Truman Word, PhD Candidate, Materials Science and Engineering

All of the events are equated back to how it was in the mining days. Either pushing an ore cart or loading an ore cart or digging in the dirt. That helps the students nowadays to understand what was going on with earlier engineers. —Willie Quinn '54

I have benefited tremendously from my experience at UTEP, especially in engineering. Because it is a really close department, we work together. TCM (Day) is a perfect example of that. Engineers from all disciplines come together to participate and that plays excellent when you go for an internship or a job interview, you can tell those employers what you have done and how you have worked with other people. —Sebastian Moncayo '19

The impact that it has on the students is the most important (reason) why we need to keep this tradition alive.  —Isa Villagomez '19, St. Pat of 2019

TCM (Day) brings students together and not just that, but this is an activity that you don't see often in school. —Paola Santillano '19, '21