University of Texas at Arlington
The University of Texas at Arlington is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Texas System in 1965.
The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The fall 2024 campus enrollment consisted of 41,613 students making it the second largest university in the UT System after UT Austin, in North Texas and fifth-largest in Texas. UT Arlington is the third-largest producer of college graduates in Texas and offers over 180 baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degree programs.
UT Arlington participates in 15 intercollegiate sports as a Division I member of the NCAA and Western Athletic Conference. UTA sports teams have been known as the Mavericks since 1971.
History
Establishment (1895–1916)
The university traces its roots back to the opening of Arlington College in September 1895. Arlington College was established as a private school for primary through secondary level students, equivalent to the modern 1st to 10th grades. At the time, the public school system in the city of Arlington was underfunded and understaffed. Local merchant Edward Emmett Rankin organized fellow citizens of the city to donate materials and land to build a schoolhouse where the modern campus is now located.Rankin also convinced the two co-principals of the public school in Arlington, Lee Morgan Hammond and William Marshall Trimble, to invest in and hold the same positions at Arlington College. In the first few years, between 75 and 150 students were enrolled in the college. The public school began to rent space at Arlington College, and was eventually sold to the city in 1900. The public school building became so unsafe that all of the space in Arlington College was rented for the 1901–1902 school year until the creation of the Arlington Independent School District in 1902. Although the public education system was set to improve, Arlington College was closed and the property was sold to James McCoy Carlisle.
Carlisle was already established as a respected educator in the North Texas region, and he opened the Carlisle Military Academy in the fall of 1902. His program consisted of a balance between course work and military training. Enrollment increased to 150 students by 1905, and he began a large expansion of the campus. Baseball, football, basketball, and track teams were begun between 1904 and 1908. Around the same time, new barracks, a track, a gymnasium, and an indoor pool were built. The academy became known as one of the best at its level in the country. Unfortunately, enrollment did not continue to increase with the expansion in facilities and Carlisle ran into serious financial problems.
Lawsuits for the mortgages on the property were filed in 1911, and Carlisle Military Academy was closed in 1913. In the fall of 1913, Henry Kirby Taylor moved from Missouri, where he was president of the Northwest State Teachers' College, to set up another military academy called Arlington Training School. He also was required to manage the finances and campus for the property owners. By the 1914–1915 school year, the campus contained 11 buildings on of land with 95 students enrolled. The school was incorporated in 1915 in order to raise funds to make improvements to the existing buildings, but more financial problems arose and another series of lawsuits were filed. Taylor left Arlington, and the property owners hired John B. Dodson to establish a third military academy for the 1916–1917 school year called Arlington Military Academy. Enrollment was apparently very low, and Arlington Military Academy closed after one year.
Texas A&M University System (1917–1965)
Since the turn of the 20th century, the prospects for turning the campus into a public, junior vocational college had been discussed. By 1917, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in College Station was overcrowded and had only one branch campus, Prairie View A&M. Vincent Woodbury Grubb, a lawyer and education advocate, organized Arlington officials to lobby the state legislature to create a new junior college. The Arlington campus was established as a branch of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas and was called Grubbs Vocational College. Students were either enrolled in a high school or junior college program, and all men were required to be cadets. Its name changed again in 1923 to the North Texas Agricultural College. Edward Everett Davis replaced Williams as dean in 1925 and held that position for 21 years.The Great Depression resulted in major cuts to funding and a decline in students, so more general college courses were gradually introduced at NTAC instead of vocational classes. During World War II, the college trained students with a "war program" focus and participated in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, offered at 131 colleges and universities in 1943, which gave students a path to a Navy commission.
Davis was also an enthusiastic support of eugenics and believed in the inherent inferiority of Mexicans and African-Americans in regards to literacy and genetics. He advised the leadership of the A&M system to consolidate the white-only schools, else they would "descend into decadence". Dean Davis appointed Ernest H. Hereford, then Registrar in 1942, to the position of associate dean in 1943. Following Davis's retirement in 1946, Hereford was appointed dean of NTAC.
In 1948, the Texas A&M System was created and Dean Hereford was named the first president of NTAC. The name was changed to Arlington State College in 1949 to reflect the fact that agriculture was no longer an important part of the curriculum. Efforts began to turn ASC into a four-year institution, but the Texas A&M system board refused to consider the idea since it was possible that ASC could grow to be larger than College Station. The growth of the city of Arlington in the 1950s led to a major expansion of ASC. The student population increased from 1,322 in 1952 to 6,528 in 1959, which led to land acquisition and construction of many buildings. Jack Woolf was named president in 1959 as serious efforts began to make ASC a four-year college. The Texas legislature approved the four-year status on April 27, 1959. ASC's racial segregation would come to an end in the summer of 1962 due to NAACP member and Dallas lawyer Fred Finch, Jr threatening litigation on behalf of his clients Ernest Hooper, Jerry Hanes, and Leaston Chase III. President Woolf and Chancellor of the A&M System Harrington would announce the desegregation of ASC on July 11 of that year, and the following fall semester being the first ever to have black students be enrolled. Enrollment reached 9,116 students in the fall of 1963, a larger total than the Texas A&M College Station campus. Although Texas A&M proposed a reorganization for the system to recognize ASC's growth, A&M System President James Earl Rudder resisted developing ASC into a university with graduate programs. Rudder and the Texas A&M board of directors, viewing ASC as a threat to the College Station campus, withheld construction funding and blocked degree development.
University of Texas System (1965–present)
The decision by the Texas A&M University governing board to block development at Arlington State College led officials of the college and a number of Arlington citizens to enlist the support of Governor John Connally and key members of the Texas Legislature to separate Arlington State College from the Texas A&M University System and to join The University of Texas System. As part of a plan that reorganized several university systems in Texas, Arlington State College officially became a part of The University of Texas System on September 1, 1965. To reflect its new membership within the UT System, the university adopted its current name in 1967.Joining the UT System was of immediate consequence. In 1966 the Graduate School was established with an initial slate of six master's degrees and new construction projects started.
Controversy erupted in the late 1960s over the use of a rebel theme that was started in 1951, including Confederate symbols and mock-slave auctions as campus traditions. After several years of efforts by President Frank Harrison to give students an opportunity to pick another theme, the UT System abolished rebels. The Maverick theme was adopted after a student vote in 1971.
Wendell Nedderman served as acting president from 1972 to 1974 and president from 1974 to 1992. His tenure was characterized by increased growth and aspirations. In these years, the graduate student population increased from 936 to 4,200 and the overall university enrollment reached 25,135 students. Faculty research and publishing was emphasized along with the addition of doctoral programs in science, engineering, business, social work, and public and urban administration. The Texas Select Committee on Higher Education recognized UT Arlington as an emerging research institution in 1987.
In May 2023, UTA alumnus Kelcy Warren gave the largest single philanthropic investment in UTA's history. He donated $12 million to grow the resource and energy engineering programs at UTA.
Campuses
Main Campus surroundings
The 420 acre main campus is at the southern edge of downtown Arlington, which also includes the largest branch of the public library, City Hall, Theatre Arlington, Levitt Pavilion, Arlington Museum of Art, churches, and numerous types of businesses just south of the Texas and Pacific Railway line, around which the city was established.The Barnett Shale formation sits below the campus and has earned the university millions of dollars from natural gas production since 2008. These funds are used for scholarships, faculty recruitment, and campus infrastructure upgrades.
Trading House Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, runs along the southern portion of the campus. Cooper Street runs through the campus and provides access to Interstate 20 and Interstate 30. AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Park in Arlington, Globe Life Field, Six Flags Over Texas, and the International Bowling Museum are two miles to the northeast.