The Texas State University System (TSUS) was created in 1911 to oversee the state's

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

s. Since its creation it has broadened its focus and comprises institutions of many different scopes. The other systems of state universities are the Texas A&M System, the Texas Tech System, the

University of Houston System The University of Houston System is a public university system in Texas, comprising four separate and distinct universities. It also owns and holds broadcasting licenses to a public television station (KUHT) and a public radio station (KUHF). Th ...

, the University of North Texas System, and the University of Texas System. The system is unique in Texas because it is the only horizontal

state university system A state university system in the United States is a group of public universities supported by an individual state, territory or federal district. These systems constitute the majority of public-funded universities in the country. State univers ...

in the state; the System does not have a flagship institution and considers all colleges and universities to be equal partners receiving the same level of support from the system. The TSUS is composed of four comprehensive universities offering

baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to: * ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification * Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree * English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...

and postgraduate degrees:

Lamar University Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2021, t ...

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

, Sam Houston State University in Huntsville,

Sul Ross State University Sul Ross State University (SRSU) is a public university in Alpine, Texas. The main campus is the primary institution of higher education serving the nineteen-county Big Bend region of far West Texas. Branch campuses, branded as Rio Grande Colle ...

in Alpine, and

Texas State University Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

in San Marcos. The system also includes three two-year colleges offering associate degrees and professional certifications:

Lamar Institute of Technology Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) is a public technical school in Beaumont, Texas. LIT was formerly a part of Lamar University, but became a separate institution when the university joined the Texas State University System in 1995. History ...

in Beaumont, Lamar State College Orange in

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

, and Lamar State College Port Arthur in Port Arthur. The Texas State University System saw its largest growth in 1995 when the Lamar University System with its four institutions was incorporated into the TSUS. The Texas State University System is headquartered in Austin. The system is governed by a nine-member Board of Regents appointed by the governor of Texas. The administration is headed by a Board-appointed chancellor based in Austin. The system owns and manages a property encompassing much of the

Christmas Mountains The Christmas Mountains are a series of rounded peaks in northern New Brunswick, Canada, at the headwaters of North Pole Stream and the Little Southwest Miramichi River, west of Big Bald Mountain, and south of Mount Carleton. The mountains, in ...

located adjacent to Big Bend National Park in southern

Brewster County Brewster County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in West Texas and its county seat (and only city) is Alpine. It is one of the nine counties that comprise the Trans-Pecos region, and borders Mexico. Brewster County is th ...

. The remote tract is regulated under strict conservation easements ensuring preservation in its natural state. The property serves as an open-air classroom for the system's member institutions and a laboratory for their research efforts.

History

The

Texas Legislature The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful ar ...

established the State Normal School Board of Regents in 1911, which would later become the present-day Texas State University System, for the control and management of the state normal schools for white teachers. The Board originally assumed authority over North Texas State Normal College (founded 1890), Sam Houston Normal Institute (1879), Southwest Texas Normal School (1899), and West Texas State Normal College (1909). The Legislature authorized the establishment of Sul Ross Normal College and the purchase of the private East Texas Normal College, founded in 1889, in 1917 That same year, the Legislature authorized the renaming of the system's normal schools to normal colleges. Political struggles for the creation of Stephen F. Austin Normal College and South Texas Normal College (Texas A&M-Kingsville) were resolved in 1921. Further legislation in 1923 renamed the system's members again to state teachers colleges while the Board was renamed the Board of Regents, State Teachers Colleges. South Texas left the system in 1929 to be governed independently as Texas Arts and Industrial College (Texas A&I) before eventually joining the

Texas A&M University System The Texas A&M University System is a state university system in Texas and is one of the state's six independent university systems. The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the United States, with a bu ...

as Texas A&M-Kingsville. Sul Ross and West Texas received name changes in 1949 becoming Sul Ross State College and West Texas State College. North Texas would leave the system the same year becoming independently governed North Texas State College. North Texas would later become the flagship campus of the University of North Texas System. Similar name changes would result in Southwest Texas State College in 1959 and Sam Houston State College in 1965. West Texas State College became West Texas State University in 1963. The year 1965 also saw the incorporation of Angelo State College, founded as a junior college in 1928, into the system. With these changes, the Board became titled the Board of Regents, State Senior Colleges. All of the system's components had their names changed from state colleges to state universities in 1969 while East Texas (Texas A&M-Commerce) and West Texas (West Texas A&M) left the system entirely in 1969 to become independent before settling on their present affiliations with the Texas A&M University System. Stephen F. Austin left the system the same year but continues to be an independent with its separate governing regents outside any of the state's other university systems. Sul Ross established upper-division and post-graduate study centers in 1973 on campuses of

Southwest Texas Junior College Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC) is a Public college, public community college with four campuses serving 11 counties in southwest Texas: unincorporated area, unincorporated Uvalde County, Texas, Uvalde County (next to Uvalde, Texas, Uvalde ...

in Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde. The Legislature conferred upon the system in 1975 its present designation as the Texas State University System. Angelo State University was re-designated as a member along with Sam Houston State University, Southwest Texas State University, and Sul Ross State University. In the most transformative change to the TSUS in its history, the Lamar University System was abolished in 1995 and its four members were incorporated into the TSUS: Lamar University (founded 1923), Lamar Institute of Technology (1995), Lamar University Orange (1969), and Lamar University Port Arthur (1909). Southwest Texas State opened an extension center in 1996 housed in temporary buildings adjacent to a Round Rock high school. After a 2004 land donation, the permanent Texas State University Round Rock Campus was opened in 2005. Sam Houston State opened The Woodlands University Center in 1998. The following year, the former Lamar campuses in Orange and Port Arthur were renamed Lamar State College Orange and Lamar State College Port Arthur. In 2003, the Legislature changed the name of Southwest Texas State to Texas State University-San Marcos. The name was shortened to Texas State University in 2013. Angelo State University left the system to affiliate with the

Texas Tech University System The Texas Tech University System is a state university system in Texas consisting of five universities in the state of Texas, of which three are general-academic universities, Texas Tech University, Angelo State University and Midwestern State U ...

in 2007 in the most recent change in system membership.Title 3, Subtitle F, Chapter 109A
Sec 109A.001
''Texas Education Code''. Retrieved on June 13, 2016. Sam Houston State operated an additional branch, the University Park Campus at Lone Star College–University Park near Tomball from 2011 until it was discontinued at the beginning of 2016. ;Membership timeline DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:24 Period = from:1878 till:2019 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:0 left:0 bottom:50 top:0 Colors = id:barcolor value:black id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:TS value:rgb(1,0.498,0.314) id:PI value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.5) id:PV value:gray(0.7) id:NT value:rgb(0,0.6,0) id:AM value:rgb(0.4,0,0) id:TT value:rgb(0.8,0,0) id:LU value:rgb(0.4,0.4,0.9) id:LUS value:rgb(0,0,0.8) PlotData= width:20 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:PI from:1879 till:1911 bar:1 color:TS from:1911 till:2017 text: Sam Houston St. (1911–present) bar:2 color:PV from:1890 till:1899 bar:2 color:PI from:1899 till:1911 bar:2 color:TS from:1911 till:1949 text:

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wo ...

(1911–1949) bar:2 color:PI from:1949 till:2003 bar:2 color:NT from:2003 till:2017 bar:3 color:PI from:1899 till:1911 bar:3 color:TS from:1911 till:2017 text: Texas St. (1911–present) bar:4 color:PI from:1909 till:1911 bar:4 color:TS from:1911 till:1969 text:

West Texas A&M West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Southern Association of Colleges ...

(1911–1969) bar:4 color:PI from:1969 till:1990 bar:4 color:AM from:1990 till:2017 bar:5 color:PV from:1889 till:1917 bar:5 color:TS from:1917 till:1969 text: Texas A&M-Commerce (1917-1969) bar:5 color:PI from:1969 till:1996 bar:5 color:AM from:1996 till:2017 bar:6 color:TS from:1917 till:2017 text: Sul Ross St. (1917–present) bar:7 color:TS from:1921 till:1969 text: Stephen F. Austin St. (1921–1969) bar:7 color:PI from:1969 till:2017 bar:8 color:TS from:1921 till:1929 text:

Texas A&M-Kingsville Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

(1921–1929) bar:8 color:PI from:1929 till:1989 bar:8 color:AM from:1989 till:2017 bar:9 color:PI from:1928 till:1975 bar:9 color:TS from:1975 till:2007 text: Angelo St. (1975–2007) bar:9 color:TT from:2007 till:2017 bar:10 color:PI from:1923 till:1983 bar:10 color:LUS from:1983 till:1995 bar:10 color:TS from:1995 till:2017 text: Lamar (1995–present) bar:11 color:PV from:1909 till:1975 bar:11 color:LU from:1975 till:1983 bar:11 color:LUS from:1983 till:1995 bar:11 color:TS from:1995 till:2017 text: LSC–PA (1995–present) bar:12 color:LU from:1969 till:1983 bar:12 color:LUS from:1983 till:1995 bar:12 color:TS from:1995 till:2017 text: LSC–0 (1995–present) bar:13 color:LUS from:1990 till:1995 bar:13 color:TS from:1995 till:2017 text: LIT (1995–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1880 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(150,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Texas State University System Membership History"

Administration

The

has delegated administrative power and authority over the Texas State University System in its Board of Regents including the organization, control, and management of the system and each of its component institutions including employing and discharging the presidents, officers, and other employees of each member institution. The Board consists of nine regents including its chair and vice chair. Members of the Board are appointed by the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

with Senate confirmation to staggered, six-year terms with three regents appointed every two years. In addition, a non-voting student regent is appointed annually. The chair and vice chair of the Board of Regents are elected by the membership of the board to one-year terms. The chair of the Board of Regents is William F. Scott, who replaced Rossanna Salazar in 2018. The chief executive officer of the university system is the chancellor, who also serves as secretary to the Board of Regents without being a member of the Board. The chancellor is appointed without a fixed term by a majority of the Board of Regents and serves at the pleasure of the Board. The chancellor has ultimate authority and responsibility over all system components including recommending the hiring and firing of the presidents of system institutions, maintaining the permanent records of the system, and advising, assisting, and representing the Board in administrative matters. The current chancellor of the Texas State University System is Brian McCall, a former legislator in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

. The system's administration consists of six offices. One office, the Office of Audits and Analysis, is independent of the chancellor and headed by a director appointed by the regents. The remaining five, Academic Affairs, Finance, General Counsel, Governmental Relations, and Marketing and Communications, are led by vice chancellors under the authority of the system chancellor.

Headquarters

O. Henry Hall in

Downtown Austin Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas. Downtown is located on the north bank of the Colorado River. The approximate borders of Downtown include Lamar Boulevard to the west, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the U ...

serves as the administrative headquarters of the TSUS. In 2015, system regents approved the acquisition of O. Henry Hall from the University of Texas System. O. Henry Hall is a former U.S. post office and federal building and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. This was done so that there was a single administrative building for the system. TSUS paid $8.2 million for O. Henry Hall. The system headquarters was previously in the Thomas J. Rusk State Office Building, Suite 600, 200 East 10th Street in Downtown Austin, and it occupied space in two other state office buildings in Downtown. In 2015, within those three buildings, TSUS had 24 full-time employees.

Board and Executive Personnel

;Current Members of the Board of Regents *Charlie Amato, Chairman, San Antonio (2007-2025) *Duke Austin, 1st Vice Chairman, Houston (2019-2023) *Garry Crain, 2nd Vice Chairman, The Hills (2018-2023) *Sheila Faske, Rose City (2021-2027) *Don Flores, El Paso (2019-2025) *Nicki Harle, Baird (2019-2023) *Stephen Lee, Beaumont (2021-2027) *William F. Scott, Nederland (2013-2025) *Alan L. Tinsley, Madisonville (2015-2027) *Gabriel Webb, Student Regent (2022-2023) ;Current Executive Officers *Brian McCall, Chancellor *Sean Cunningham, Vice Chancellor for Governmental Relations *Carole Fox, Chief Audit Executive *Daniel Harper, Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer *John Hayek, Vice Chancellor for Academic and Health Affairs *Nelly Herrera, Vice Chancellor and General Counsel *Mike Wintemute, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications

Comparison of present and former component institutions

The member institutions of the Texas State University system are separate and distinct institutions, have their own local presidents and administration, confer their own degrees, and establish their own criteria and requirements for admission, subject to approval by the Board of Regents.

Universities

The TSUS does not have a flagship university. All of its comprehensive universities are regarded as stand-alone institutions equal in stature under system administration. The

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

and West Texas A&M University were founding members of the Texas State University System along with Sam Houston State and Texas State. ;Note

State colleges

All three of the TSUS' two-year institutions offering associate degrees and professional certifications are located in the state's two most southeastern counties, Jefferson and

, in the Golden Triangle region where the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

meets the

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

state line. All were formerly components of the now-defunct Lamar University System before the former system was incorporated into the TSUS. The three institutions, along with LIT's extension center in Silsbee located in Hardin County, are within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area.

Branch campuses and extension centers

Branch locations of the system's comprehensive universities only offer upper-division (junior and senior) undergraduate and graduate coursework. *Lamar Institute of Technology extension center in Silsbee, Texas at the Frank Robinson Center *Sam Houston State University The Woodlands Center on the Lone Star College–Montgomery campus in The Woodlands *Sul Ross State University branch campus locations: ** Del Rio campus of

** Eagle Pass campus of Southwest Texas Junior College ** Uvalde campus of Southwest Texas Junior College *

Texas State University Round Rock Campus Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

in Round Rock Sam Houston State formerly operated the Sam Houston State University Park Campus at Lone Star College-University Park near Tomball.

References

External links

* {{authority control Public university systems in the United States