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.
Texas Southern University is a public historically black university in Houston. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Sam Houston State University is a public research university in Huntsville, Texas. Founded in 1879, it is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and the first in Texas. The school is named for Sam Houston, who made his home in the city and is buried there.
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.
The University of Houston System is a public university system in the U.S. state of 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).
Lamar Institute of Technology is a public technical school in Beaumont, Texas. It was formerly a part of Lamar University, but became a separate institution when the university joined the Texas State University System in 1995.
The University of North Texas System is a public university system headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is the administrative overseer of three otherwise autonomous Texas institutions of higher learning: the University of North Texas, a research institution based in Denton; the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth; and the University of North Texas at Dallas in South- and Downtown Dallas.
Lamar State College–Orange is a public community college in Orange, Texas. It currently serves approximately 2,300 students and is a member of the Texas State University System.
The University of Texas at Austin was originally conceived in 1827 under an article in the Constitución de Coahuila y Texas to open a public university in the state of Texas. The Constitution of 1876 also called for the creation of a "university of the first class." Thus, they created "The University of Texas." Since the school's opening in 1883, the University of Texas has expanded greatly with the Austin institution remaining the flagship university of the University of Texas System. By the late 1990s, the university had the largest enrollment in the country and contained many of the country's top programs in the areas of law, architecture, film, engineering, and business.
Hans Peter Mareus Neilsen Gammel was an author and bookseller. He served as editor and publisher of a series of books reporting Texas legislation enacted by each congressional and legislative session. His first publication consisted of 10 volumes and covered 75 years of Texas legal history. The Laws of Texas 1822-1897 has long been a primary resource for the study of Texas legal history during the Nineteenth Century.
The Texas Tech University System is a public university system in Texas with five member universities. Headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, the Texas Tech University System is a $3 billion enterprise focused on advancing higher education, health care, research, and outreach with approximately 21,000 employees, more than 63,000 students, nearly 400,000 alumni and an endowment valued at $3.06 billion. In its short history, the TTU System has grown tremendously with 24 academic locations statewide and internationally.
Of the languages spoken in Texas, none has been designated the official language. As of 2020, 64.9% of residents spoke only English at home, while 28.8% spoke Spanish at home. Throughout the history of Texas, English and Spanish have at one time or another been the primary dominant language used by government officials, with German recognized as a minority language from statehood until the first World War. Prior to European colonization, several indigenous languages were spoken in what is now Texas, including Caddoan, Na-Dené and Uto-Aztecan languages.
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.
Texas has over 1,000 public school districts—all but one of the school districts in Texas are independent, separate from any form of municipal or county government. School districts may cross city and county boundaries. Independent school districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) oversees these districts, providing supplemental funding, but its jurisdiction is limited mostly to intervening in poorly performing districts.
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.
Following the defeat of the Confederate States in the American Civil War, Texas was mandated to rejoin the United States of America. Union Army soldiers officially occupied the state starting on June 19, 1865. For the next nine years, Texas was governed by a series of provisional governors as the state went through Reconstruction. As stated by the Texas State Library and Archive Commission, in 1869, the United States Congress passed an act allowing the citizens of Texas to vote on a new State Constitution. Later that same year, President Grant approved their Constitution. Texas fully rejoined the Union on March 30, 1870, when President Grant signed the act to readmit Texas to Congressional Representation. Texas later repealed the State Constitution of 1869 and enacted the Texas State Constitution of 1876 on February 15, 1876, which remains their current state constitution though with numerous amendments.
Charles Ray Matthews is a former member and chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission and the chancellor-emeritus of the Texas State University System. Based in Austin, Texas, his service on the Railroad Commission extended from 1995 to 2005; as chancellor, from 2005 to 2010.
The Texas Army, officially the Army of the Republic of Texas, was the land force branch of the Texas Military Forces during the Republic of Texas. It descended from the Texian Army, which was established in October 1835 to fight for independence from Centralist Republic of Mexico in the Texas Revolution. The Texas Army was provisionally formed by the Consultation in November 1835; however, it did not replace the Texian Army until after the Battle of San Jacinto. The Texas Army, Texas Navy, and Texas Militia were officially established on September 5, 1836, in Article II of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. The Texas Army and Texas Navy were merged with the United States Armed Forces on February 19, 1846, after the Republic of Texas became the 28th state of America.
The history of East Texas State Normal College (ETSNC) comprises the history of the university now known as East Texas A&M University from when it was acquired by the State of Texas in 1917, to when it was renamed East Texas State Teachers College in 1923. In the context of the college's significant institutional debt, a pressing need for repairs to campus facilities, and American entry into World War I, Randolph B. Binnion, the Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was selected as its second president in July 1917. Among Binnion's first accomplishments in office were enlarging the faculty and repairing the physical plant. Despite having an enrollment of just 234 when it reopened as a public school in 1917, by 1922 ETSNC was the second best attended normal college in the state.
