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Former names | |
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Type | Public university |
Established | 1917 |
Parent institution | Texas State University System |
Academic affiliation | Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities |
Endowment | $17.08 million [4] |
Budget | $38,343,179 (FY 2016) [4] |
President | Carlos Hernandez (interim) [5] |
Provost | Bernardo Cantens |
Academic staff |
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Administrative staff | 489.66 (full-time equivalent employees, 2015) [7] |
Students |
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Location | , , United States 30°21′48″N103°39′00″W / 30.36333°N 103.65000°W |
Campus | Rural, 647.05 acres (261.85 ha) [9] |
Colors | Scarlet and Grey [10] |
Nickname | Lobos |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division III – ASC National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association |
Mascot | Sully |
Website | www |
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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 College, are located in Del Rio, Uvalde, Eagle Pass, and Castroville. [11]
Named for former Texas governor and Civil War Confederate general Lawrence Sullivan Ross, the institution was founded in 1917 as Sul Ross Normal College and was made a university in 1969. It is governed by the Board of Regents of the Texas State University System. [11]
Named for Lawrence Sullivan Ross, governor of Texas from 1887 to 1891 and president of The A&M College of Texas from 1891 to 1898, the institution was the successor to Alpine Summer Normal School. [12]
April 14, 1914, Governor James E. Ferguson signed the bill selecting Alpine as the site for a normal school provided the residents of the town would provide land, water, and utilities for the college and housing for the students. This condition was met swiftly, and following a delay occasioned by World War I, the Legislature in 1919 appropriated $200,000 for buildings and equipment.
Construction proceeded, and under the presidency of Thomas J. Fletcher, Sul Ross State Normal College began operations in the present Dolph Briscoe Jr. Administration Building on June 14, 1920. [12]
Seventy-seven students enrolled in the summer of 1920. They studied education and liberal arts subjects leading to teaching certificates and junior college diplomas. In 1923, the Legislature changed the name of the institution to Sul Ross State Teachers College, and advanced courses leading to baccalaureate degrees were added. The first baccalaureate degree was awarded in the summer of 1925. In 1930, course work at the graduate level was initiated, and the first master's degrees were awarded in 1933.
Early in its history, Sul Ross became the cultural and educational center for the mountainous, remote Big Bend region. The state-supported Museum of the Big Bend was established in the 1930s as a depository for materials which depict the multicultural society and history of the Big Bend region, and in 1976, the Archives of the Big Bend in the Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library was organized to provide a permanent depository and research facility for regional manuscript collections.
Under the leadership of President Horace W. Morelock from 1923 to 1945, the curriculum was expanded, additional academic buildings and dormitories were constructed, the college was admitted into membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and enrollment increased to about 500 students. A decline in enrollment during World War II threatened the continued operation of the college, but was offset by the establishment of a successful U.S. Navy pilot training program and a Women's Army Corps Training School on campus, bringing more than 1,500 military trainees and officers to Sul Ross.
Following the war, the return of veterans increased the annual enrollments and prompted the expansion of the curriculum. Richard M. Hawkins became president in 1945, and the college was reorganized into divisions of Fine Arts, Language Arts, Science, Social Science, Teacher Education, and Vocations. Then in 1949, in recognition of the broadened mission of the institution to prepare students for a variety of careers and occupations, the name was changed to Sul Ross State College.
The enrollment grew to more than 1,000 in 1960 and to over 2,000 in 1970. During the presidencies of Bryan Wildenthal and Norman L. McNeil between 1952 and 1974, the academic programs continued to be strengthened; new fine arts, physical education, science and range animal science buildings and a new library were constructed, and several new degree programs were begun.
In 1969, the Legislature again changed the name of the institution, this time signifying full state university status as Sul Ross State University. The 1970s were years of stable or declining enrollments caused by the opening of several new colleges in West Texas. The general education requirements were revised; new degree programs were added in criminal justice, business administration, and geology; an off-campus study center was established on the campus of Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde to provide opportunities for residents of the Uvalde, Del Rio, and Eagle Pass areas to pursue upper-level and graduate work in teacher education and business administration; the Legislature appropriated more than $10 million to renovate and modernize the academic buildings; and personnel changes brought to the university a new generation of faculty, consisting, in 1985, of around 100 persons of whom 74% held a doctorate. By 1985, 10,925 bachelor's degrees and 4,862 master's degrees had been conferred.
The academy provides two types of training programs. [14] A Basic Police Academy is conducted annually. Cadets who successfully complete the basic police training academy are eligible to sit for the Basic Peace Officer Examination. Those who pass this exam with a score of 70 percent or higher are then certified by The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) and are eligible for hire by Texas law enforcement agencies.
The academy also provides continuing education and in-service training for law enforcement and corrections personnel in the Sul Ross State University service area. A variety of courses ranging from four hours to forty hours in length are offered each semester. These courses are designed to fulfill TCOLE mandated training requirements and to meet the unique training needs of area agencies of rural and small-town law enforcement agencies.
Sul Ross State athletic teams are called the Lobos. The university is a member of the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the Lone Star Conference.
Sul Ross State competes in 12 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, soccer and tennis; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. [15]
In July 2023, Lobos athletic programs were approved for reclassification to Division II. [16] On July 1, 2024, the university became a member of the Lone Star Conference. [17]
Student housing is located at Lobo Village. Lobo Village 1 (LV1) and Lobo Village 2 (LV2) are the permanent resident halls for students. Students under the age of 21 who have not lived on campus for four fall or spring semesters are required to live in these halls, unless they get exceptions from the Residential Living office. Fletcher Hall is a temporary overflow facility when all space at LV1 and LV2 is occupied. Students at Fletcher Hall are required to move to LV1 or LV2 when space becomes available in those areas. [18]
Single students may live in the Lobo Village efficiency apartments in Lobo Village 3 and Lobo Village 4. To live in these apartments, students are required to be 21 or older. Family housing, for couples and students with dependent children, is located in Lobo Village 5, Lobo Village 6, and Lobo Village 7. [18] Residents of the family housing are zoned to the Alpine Independent School District, and are zoned to Alpine Elementary School, Alpine Middle School, and Alpine High School.
Sul Ross State University (SRSU) operates Rio Grande College (RGC) and SRSU distance learning centers on the campuses of Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC) in Uvalde, Del Rio, and Eagle Pass. Serving thirteen counties in Southwest Texas, RGC offers both undergraduate and graduate programs.
Rio Grande College offers college junior, senior and graduate level coursework with programs in liberal arts, business and teacher education and certification at the elementary or secondary level at all sites. To be admitted to Rio Grande College, a student must have completed 42 semester credit hours of transferable work, passed the Texas Academic Skills Program requirements, and met other admission requirements outlined in the current Rio Grande College Catalog. [19]
Bachelor's degrees in a variety of fields including nursing, education, business, biology, criminal justice, English, Spanish, history, mathematics, psychology, social science as well as child development and organizational leadership are offered. [19]
Master's degrees in English, history, public administration, business, education, criminal justice and health and human performance are also offered. [19]
The RGC Distance Learning Centers at each of the four campuses provide real-time interaction between a professor and students learning from a distance. All campuses are equipped with two computer labs and writing centers, where students are tutored to master written and oral communication skills. Additionally, more than half of RGC's course offerings are available online for convenience of students otherwise obligated to work or family schedules. [20]
RGC was renamed by the Texas Legislature as Sul Ross State University Rio Grande College in 1995, recognizing its service to the broad area of the Middle Rio Grande and Wintergarden regions of Texas. Originally known as the SRSU Study Center, the college had been renamed the SRSU Uvalde Study Center in 1985 and again the SRSU Uvalde Center in 1989. [21]
The student body is multicultural and consists of traditional and non-traditional students. [22]
Texas A&M University is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. Since 2021, Texas A&M has enrolled the largest student body in the United States, and is the only university in Texas to hold simultaneous designations as a land-, sea-, and space-grant institution. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and a member of the Association of American Universities.
Uvalde County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 24,564. Its county seat is Uvalde. The county was created in 1850 and organized in 1856. It is named for Juan de Ugalde, the Spanish governor of Coahuila. Uvalde County was founded by Reading Wood Black, who also founded the city of Uvalde, Texas. Uvalde County comprises the Uvalde, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Brewster County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in West Texas and its county seat is Alpine. It is one of the nine counties that comprise the Trans-Pecos region, and borders Mexico. Brewster County is the largest county by area in the state - at 6,192 square miles (16,040 km2) it is over three times the size of the state of Delaware, and more than 500 square miles (1,300 km2) bigger than Connecticut.
Alpine is a city in and the county seat of Brewster County, Texas, United States. The population was 6,035 at the 2020 census. The town has an elevation of 4,462 feet (1,360 m), and the surrounding mountain peaks are over 1 mile (1.6 km) above sea level. A university, hospital, library, and retail make Alpine the center of the sprawling 12,000 square miles (3,108,000 ha) but wide open Big Bend area including Brewster, Presidio, and Jeff Davis counties.
The University of Texas System is a public university system in the U.S. state of Texas. It includes nine universities and five independent health institutions. The UT System is headquartered in Downtown Austin. It is the largest university system in Texas with 250,000+ enrolled students, 21,000+ employed faculty, 83,000+ health care professionals, researchers and support staff. The UT System's $42.7 billion endowment is the largest of any public university system in the United States.
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The Texas State University System (TSUS) is a public university system in Texas. It was created in 1911 to oversee the state's normal schools. It has since broadened its focus and comprises institutions of many different scopes.
The University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) was a public university in Edinburg, Texas. Founded in 1927, it was a component institution of the University of Texas System. The university served the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas with baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees. The Carnegie Foundation classified UTPA as a "doctoral research university". From the institution's founding until it was merged into the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), it grew from 200 students to over 20,000, making UTPA the 10th-largest university in Texas. The majority of these students were natives of the Rio Grande Valley. UTPA also operated an Upper Level Studies Center in Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas. On August 15, 2014, Dr. Havidan Rodriguez was appointed interim President of UTPA, the institution's final leader.
The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul is a Brazilian public federal research university based in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. UFRGS is among the largest and highest-rated universities in Brazil, having one of the largest number of scientific publications. From 2012 to 2019, the university was elected as the best federal university of Brazil. UFRGS has over 31,000 undergraduate students, over 12,000 graduate students, and more than 2,600 faculty members. As a Brazilian public federal institution, students do not pay tuition fees to enroll in courses offered by the university.
Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC) is a public community college with four campuses serving 11 counties in southwest Texas: unincorporated Uvalde County, Del Rio, next to Del Rio International Airport, unincorporated Maverick County, and Crystal City, the seat of Zavala County.
The Alpine Independent School District is a school district based in Alpine, Texas, United States. The district operates one high school, Alpine High School.
State Highway 223 is a highway maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) entirely within the city of Alpine in Brewster County. Unofficially, the route is locally called the Loop Rd. The 1.6-mile (2.6 km) route designated between 1933 and 1936 runs from the combined U.S. Route 67 and U.S. Route 90 in front of Sul Ross State University on the west side of town to SH 118 on the city's north side. There are no intersections with other highways between its termini. A number of the city's significant points of interest are located along the route.
South Texas College (STC) is a public community college in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award Bachelor of Applied Technology, Associate of Applied Science, Associate of Arts, and Associate of Science degrees. STC has an enrollment of approximately 31,000 students and a staff of 1,600 working across six campuses. It was created on September 1, 1993, with the passage of Texas Senate Bill 251, the purpose of which was to serve Hidalgo and Starr County.
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The Sul Ross State University Lobos are the athletic teams of Sul Ross State University, a public university in Alpine, Texas. They compete in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the Lone Star Conference.
Pete Peña Gallego is an American lawyer, politician, and higher education leader who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district from 2013 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 68th district beginning in 1991. He was president of his alma mater, Sul Ross State University in Far West Texas, from 2020 through 2022 and continues to serve as president emeritus as he writes and speaks on issues related to college accessibility and affordability, particularly for first-generation students.
Alpine High School is a public high school located in the city of Alpine, Texas (USA) and is classified as a 3A school by the UIL. It is a part of the Alpine Independent School District located in north-central Brewster County. For the 2021-2022 school year, the school was given an "A" by the Texas Education Agency.
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The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public research university with multiple campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. It is the southernmost member of the University of Texas System. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 after the consolidation of the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College and the University of Texas–Pan American.
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