South Texas Junior College (STJC) was a

junior college A junior college is a type of post-secondary institution that offers vocational and academic training that is designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations or support roles in professions such as engineering, a ...

located in Houston, Texas (

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

). The

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

opened STJC in 1948 and operated the two-year coeducational liberal arts school; no tax money supported the school. The YMCA pioneered the concept of night school, providing educational opportunities for people with full-time employment. At first classes occurred in the old Downtown YMCA building at 1600 Louisiana. In 1949, the school had 144 students. The

South Texas College of Law South Texas College of Law Houston (STCL or South Texas) is a private law school in Houston, Texas. It was founded in 1923 when the YMCA made the decision to establish a law school with a focus on offering night classes for working professi ...

, also under the YMCA umbrella, dominated most of the funding and attention of the college before the two groups decoupled in the mid-1960s. As part of this, classes moved to the Merchants and Manufacturers Building at One Main Street in 1967, when STJC ended its affiliation with the YMCA. Two years later, under President W.I. Dykes, the college bought the Merchants and Manufacturers Building outright and took over most of the building for classes and administration. Enrollment dropped, however, throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, from an all-time high of nearly 5,000 students to 2,737 students and 120 faculty members by 1973. The YMCA and

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

buildings provided dormitories for students. At one time it was the largest private junior college in the United States, and in 1974, still ranked among the top ten. On August 6, 1974, the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

acquired the assets of South Texas Junior College and opened the University of Houston–Downtown College as a institution.

References

External links

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Confluence: History and Archives at the University of Houston-Downtown
University of Houston–Downtown Defunct private universities and colleges in Texas Universities and colleges founded by the YMCA {{Texas-university-stub