Texas State University
Texas State University is a public research university that was established in 1899. Its main campus is in San Marcos, Texas, United States, and another campus is in Round Rock. The university has grown to be the seventh-largest university in Texas. Texas State University reached a record enrollment of 40,678 students in the 2024 fall semester, continuing a trend of enrollment growth over several years.
Texas State University offers over 200 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs from its nine colleges. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. Texas State is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas. It spent more than $160 million in research expenditures during fiscal year 2024.
Texas State's main campus consists of 259 buildings on of hilly land along the San Marcos River. It also has a satellite campus at its Round Rock Campus in the greater north Austin area. The university operates the Science, Technology and Advanced Research Park, a technology commercialization and applied research facility. Texas State has additional acres of recreational, instructional, farm, and ranch land. The Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State is the largest forensics research facility in the world.
Texas State University's intercollegiate sports teams, the Bobcats, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and the Sun Belt Conference.
History
Texas State University was first proposed in a March 3, 1899 bill by state representative Fred Cocke with the name of Southwest Texas State Normal School. Cocke represented the citizens of Hays and surrounding counties where the school was to be located. While there was opposition to the bill, with the support of state senator J.B. Dibrell, it was finally passed and signed into law on May 10, 1899, by Governor Joseph D. Sayers. The school's purpose was to train the future teachers of Texas. Any students earning a diploma and teaching certificate from the school would be authorized to teach in the state's public schools. In October 1899, the San Marcos City Council voted to donate of land at what was known as Chautauqua Hill for the school to be built on. It was not until 1901 that the Texas legislature accepted this donation and approved $25,000 to be used for construction of buildings on the site. The building now known as Old Main was completed and the school opened its doors to its first enrollment of 303 students in September 1903.The San Marcos School Board began a partnership with the school in 1912 in order to allow Southwest Texas State Normal School students to instruct local school children as part of their training to become teachers. The San Marcos East End Ward School, comprising the first eight grades of the school district, was moved onto the Southwest Texas State campus in 1917. In 1935, a formal contract between Southwest Texas State Teachers College, as it was known then, and the San Marcos school district for the "Public Schools the laboratory school for said Teachers College." The school would be under the control and supervision of the city of San Marcos but Southwest Texas State was responsible for providing and maintaining buildings and equipment for the city's elementary and junior high schools.
The college enrolled its first African-American students in 1963, following a federal lawsuit brought by Dana Smith, who became one of the first five African Americans at the institution when a district court judge ruled that they could not be denied admission based on race.
The school's most famous alumnus, United States president Lyndon B. Johnson, returned to his alma mater on November 8 of 1965 in order to sign the Higher Education Act of 1965, a part of the Great Society programs. The president gave a speech in the old Strahan Gymnasium on the school's campus, before signing the bill. He recounted his own difficulties affording to go to college: having to shower and shave in the school's gymnasium, living above a faculty member's garage, and working multiple jobs.
Ten students were suspended from Texas State for protesting the Vietnam War on November 13 in 1969. They became known as the "San Marcos 10." They appealed their expulsion through the normal school channels, and then they filed a lawsuit against the president of the university, the dean of students and the Texas State University system Board of Regents. They were reinstated via an injunction and attended classes while their case moved through the courts. When their appeals were rejected, they submitted their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but only Justice William Douglas voted to hear their argument so the decisions of the lower courts stood. The San Marcos 10 subsequently lost all of the credits for the semesters they completed while their lawsuit moved through the court system.
Expansion
The campus has grown substantially from its original 11 acres in 1899. During the first 40 years of the school's history, the campus was expanded to accommodate 18 buildings around the original Main Building. These buildings included academic buildings, a library, buildings to house the San Marcos school students, dormitories, a dining hall, and men's and women's gymnasiums. In 1926, 90 acres of land adjacent to the San Marcos River was purchased by A. B. Rogers to build a hotel, glass-bottom boat rides and other water-based attractions to become the Aquarena Springs theme park. The university bought the property in 1994 intending to use the land as a research and education center. In 2002, this piece of land became known as the International Institute for Sustainable Water Resources and offered educational tours including a wetlands boardwalk and continued to offer glass-bottom boat rides.In 1996, the school began offering courses in Round Rock, Texas, on the campus of Westwood High School. It originally offered night classes that allowed students to earn graduate degrees in business administration and education. As enrollment in these programs increased and with a gift of, the Texas State University Round Rock Campus was constructed and opened in 2005.
Name changes
The school's name has changed several times over the course of its history. The first change occurred in 1918 when Southwest Texas State Normal School became Southwest Texas State Normal College, after the Board of Regents, two years earlier, had authorized the school to begin granting degrees as a senior college. In 1921, a statewide effort was launched to improve academic standards in Texas normal schools to meet more closely the requirements of the University of Texas. These improvements prompted a second name change in 1923, when the Texas Legislature renamed the school Southwest Texas State Teachers College. Another change occurred in 1959, with the school becoming Southwest Texas State College. Ten years later, the legislature renamed the school Southwest Texas State University.In 2003, members of the school's Associated Student Government, approached state senator Jeff Wentworth asking that the school be renamed Texas State University at San Marcos. The ASG had unanimously approved a resolution supporting the change, arguing that the current name reflected a regionalism that was not aligned with the university's effort to reach top-tier status. The ASG further said that donations from the school's alumni would pay for implementing the name change so that state tax dollars would not be required. Some students and alumni protested the change, pointing out that no vote had been taken on the matter. A bill, sponsored by Senator Wentworth, was passed and on September 1, 2003, the school became known as Texas State University–San Marcos. The city was originally included in the name to differentiate it from other schools in the Texas State University System, which were, at the time, expected to change their names to Texas State University. Those changes did not occur, however, and after Texas State continued to expand its campus in Round Rock, the university requested that the name of the city be removed from the school's name. In 2013, under the McDaniel-Sibley ASG Administration, Associated Student Government senator Quentin De La Garza continued the efforts to have the name changed. A bill to accomplish that change was passed by the Eighty-third Texas Legislature and signed by the governor. The name was officially changed on September 1, 2013, for the sixth time in the school's history.
2019 sexual assault controversies
In the fall of 2019, the US Department of Education opened a formal review into Texas State University's compliance with a federal crime-reporting statute meant to provide information about campus safety. Texas State University officials acknowledged in September 2019 that it seriously under-reported the number of rapes and other crimes on campus in recent years. A former university police chief and his top deputy were also accused of hiring unqualified officers to patrol the San Marcos campus, including one who allegedly slept with a sexual assault victim while investigating her case.Campus
Texas State University comprises over 8 million gross square feet in facilities and its campuses are located on over 500 acres with an additional 4,000 acres of agriculture, research, and recreational areas.The Texas State University main campus is located in San Marcos, Texas, midway between Austin and San Antonio along Interstate 35. It spans, including the original land donated by the city of San Marcos consisting of Chautauqua Hill on which Old Main still sits. The university also operates a Round Rock Campus and a Science, Technology, and Advanced Research Park; other parts of the Texas State property including farm and ranch land, residential, recreational areas and commercial incubators cover more than of additional land.
Image:Elmcreek67.jpg|right|thumb|alt=Aerial view of TXST campus in 2009|Aerial view of TXST campus in 2009
The Quad is the heart of campus because it is surrounded by a majority of the academic buildings and is near the bus loop where most of the university bus routes stop on campus. Since many students pass through the quad, it is the primary gathering place for student organizations, which often set up booths and tables promoting fundraisers and events. The west end of the Quad has a 17-foot high aluminum sculpture of two horses, called The Fighting Stallions. This area was designated as the university's free speech zone and was subject to one of the first court challenges to the creation of such zones after the suspension of ten students protesting the Vietnam War. The east end of the Quad rises to the top of the highest hill on campus where the university's oldest building, Old Main, sits.
The main campus in San Marcos served as the location of the fictional school TMU in the NBC TV series Friday Night Lights.