Texas State’s Points of Pride
National Recognition
- U.S. News & World Report included Texas State among “America’s Best Colleges” for 2009, the fourth consecutive year the university has received the honor. Texas State is the only public institution in the state ranked in the top tier of master’s universities in the 15-state western region of the United States.
- The National Council for Geographic Education’s Journal of Geography recognized our undergraduate program in geography as the best in the nation. Because of its stellar reputation, our Department of Geography is the largest in the United States.
- Graphic Design USA magazine recognized our communication design program in June 2007 when it listed Texas State among the 29 “Select Top U.S. Graphic Design Schools.” We were the only Texas school on the list and one of only a few public universities. Others honored were renowned private art and design schools, including Parsons, the Ringling College of Art and Design, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
- The Association of Teacher Educators has recognized our teacher preparation program as one of the top three in the United States.
- Diverse magazine ranked Texas State 16th in the nation in 2008 for the number of Hispanic students receiving undergraduate degrees and 49th for the number of minority students earning undergraduate degrees. In addition, an October 2007 report from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Education Trust listed Texas State as one of 11 universities across the nation that have stellar graduation rates for Hispanic students and praised our “commitment to Hispanic student success” as a model for other institutions to emulate.
- The Southwest Regional Humanities Center at Texas State is one of nine such centers in the United States. It is a national center for education, research, public outreach and preservation of the history, culture and ecology of the U.S. Southwest.
Academic Rigor
- Our University Honors Program is one of the fastest-growing university honors program in Texas, thanks to the increasing number of high-achieving students who choose Texas State.
- Texas State has the sixth-highest retention and graduation rate of public universities in the state.
- More Bobcat student-athletes than ever — 206 — attained a 3.0 GPA or better in the 2006-07 academic year; 37 of them (also a record number) had 4.0 GPAs.
- Our McCoy College of Business Administration is among the small number of U.S. business schools accredited by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
New and Innovative Programs
- Our new Ingram School of Engineering offers manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, and electrical engineering programs.
- In summer 2008, we launched a new graduate program in which students can become doctors of physical therapy.
- Texas State offers undergraduate and graduate courses at the Round Rock Higher Education Center (RRHEC). With approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the RRHEC will be home to Texas State’s School of Nursing, scheduled to open in 2010.
- Our School of Music’s sound recording technology program, housed in the historic Fire Station Studios, is the only degree program of its kind in the Southwestern United States.
- Texas State’s School of Health Administration is one of only six in the nation with both an undergraduate program certified by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration and a graduate program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education.
- Our athletic training program was the first one in Texas certified by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Educators.
Superior Graduate Programs
- Our Master of Applied Geography degree program was the first in the nation.
- The American Historical Association ranks our Master of Arts in history program among those in the top 15 percent of American universities for the number and quality of students it prepares for doctoral programs at prestigious schools.
- The Association of Writers & Writing Programs said that our master’s program for creative writing is positioned to challenge the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the nation’s top creative writing program.
- Our Communication Disorders master’s program offers a bilingual speech-language pathology specialty. It was the 14th program of its kind established in the United States.
- The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board praised Texas State for developing doctoral programs built on already successful undergraduate and graduate programs.
Award-Winning Professors
- We’ve had 17 faculty members honored as Piper Professors for their superior teaching. Only one other Texas university has had more.
- In 2007, Governor Rick Perry appointed Department of History Chair Frank de la Teja to serve as the first-ever State Historian of Texas.
- Geography professors Brock Brown and Richard Dixon each received the National Council for Geographic Education’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2006. Our faculty has received more of these awards than any other university faculty in the nation.
- Paul Paese, director of teacher education at Texas State, was elected as the 2008 president of the Association of Teacher Educators. The group represents more than 700 colleges and universities.
- Author Tim O’Brien, winner of the National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is serving as the university’s endowed chair in creative writing for the fifth time. O’Brien shares his craft with students in Texas State’s MFA program in creative writing.
World-Class Research
- As the site of Aquarena, the River Systems Institute and Edwards Aquifer Research & Data Center, our campus is one of the best places in the world to study aquatic ecosystems and species.
- Walt Trybula, director of the Nanomaterials Application Center at Texas State, was named one of just 56 Fellows of the International Society for Optical Engineering for driving the industry effort behind the rapid implementation of immersion lithography, a process used in semiconductor manufacturing.
- Kim Rossmo, a research professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and the university’s endowed chair in criminology, developed a methodology that has been used by the FBI, ATF and Scotland Yard to help solve thousands of crimes. At Texas State, he applies his methodology to research projects on a range of topics, from counterterrorism to disease control.
- Cambridge-educated scientist Terry Golding holds the university’s endowed chair in materials science and engineering. He leads a multi-functional materials initiative that develops enhanced-efficiency infrared sensors for use in U.S. military night-vision devices and chemical agent detectors.
- Rodney Rohde, an assistant professor in Texas State’s College of Health Professions, received the 2007 Scientific Research Award from the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science. Each year, the ASCLS recognizes only one project in the United States that represents outstanding research in clinical laboratory science.
- Chemistry professor Ben Martin received the CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation in 2008 in recognition of his work in solid-state chemistry and his potential impact on the field in the future. Martin is the second Texas State professor to receive this prestigious grant.
- The National Institute of Health awarded Kevin Lewis, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, a federal grant in 2007 to fund his research on the link between aging chromosomes and cancer.
- Chemistry professors Gary Beall and Chad Booth developed a clear, bullet-resistant polymer that the U.S. military could soon fit into the canopies of Cobra attack helicopters for use in Iraq.
- Archaeology professor Britt Bousman, director of the Center for Archaeological Studies at Texas State, and a team of students and faculty, are excavating in South Africa to discover why our species survived when others did not.
- The National Science Foundation awarded aquatic resources doctoral student Shawn McCracken a Graduate Research Fellowship in 2007. He has identified two new species of amphibians and hopes to identify how environmental changes are impacting amphibian populations.
- A research team made up of University Honors students Kellie Beicker, Ashley Ralph and Hui-Yiing Chang, along with physics professors Donald Olson and Russell Doescher, was the first to predict the occurrence of “moonbows” (nocturnal rainbows) at Yosemite. The May 2007 issue of Sky & Telescope featured their work.
Stellar Students
- Audrey Estupinan and Albert Walker were two of 25 students selected nationwide in 2008 to receive Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowships for minority students pursuing careers in teaching. Texas State has had 19 students receive this prestigious fellowship — more than any other institution in Texas.
- School of Music student and opera singer Elizabeth Loving was accepted to perform at the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy in 2008.
- Daniel Homan, a student in our graduate-level creative writing program, signed a contract with Wildside Press in 2007 to publish two works of science fiction — Queen of Hearts and Black Hands.
- Michael Jason Cade, a computer science graduate student, won the 2006 IBM Master the Mainframe Contest. This international competition attracted 1,085 students from 177 universities across the United States and Canada. Fellow computer science student Christian McArthur finished fifth overall.
- The American Advertising Federation named advertising student Antonio Banos one of 50 Most Promising Minority Students in the nation for 2007.
- “Sniper 66,” a film by public history graduate student Whitney Milam beat out 13,000 entries nationwide to receive the 2007 Outstanding Historical Television Documentary Award during the 28th Annual Telly Awards. The film also won a Lone Star Emmy Award for “best historical documentary.”
Competitive Athletes
- The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame selected Bobcat football player and graduate student Nicholas Clark as a 2007 National Scholar-Athlete. Clark is one of only 15 athletes in the nation and one of only two in Texas honored for academic and civic leadership as well as athletic ability.
- Our water ski team won the Division II national title at the 29th National Collegiate Ski National Championships in 2007. The team, composed of men and women, is the oldest active sports club at the university.
- The Bobcat football team won the Southland Conference in 2005 and progressed to the NCAA Division 1-AA (now known as the Football Championship Series) semifinals.
- Our volleyball team took back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament’s first round in 2004 and 2005 under the leadership of Karen Chisum, one of the 15 winningest coaches in NCAA history.
- Our women’s soccer team draws one of the 30 largest crowds in the country. The team ranked 29th among NCAA Division I teams across the nation in 2006 for attendance at home games.
Outstanding Student Organizations
- The American Marketing Association chapter at Texas State finished second overall in the AMA Case competition during the 30th Annual AMA International Collegiate Conference in 2008. The chapter was also recognized as an “Outstanding Chapter,” making it one of the top 16 chapters in the world.
- The American Society of Interior Designers recognized the Texas State Interior Design Society as the nation’s 2007 Outstanding Student Chapter of the Year.
- Our Students in Free Enterprise team won first place in the 2008 SIFE USA Regional Competition. The team has placed among the top 20 in the region for the past 11 years. In 2000, the group competed against 700 teams from 15 countries to win the international championship.
- Our American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition team claimed its second national title in 2005. The team has placed third or higher at district or sixth or higher at national competition every year since 1987.
- Downbeat Magazine honored Salsa del Rio, a student Latin jazz band, with its “Best Recording of the Year” award for 2007 in the blues, pop and rock category for “Lloraras y lloraras,” the band’s fifth album.
- The University Star, KTSW and Bobcat Update, the university’s student newspaper, radio station and newscast, respectively, won 41 awards during the 2007 Texas Intercollegiate Press Association’s convention. University Star and KTSW also took home eight awards, including four first-place honors, from the 2007 regional conference of the Society of Professional Journalists. The newspaper’s award for overall general excellence advanced it to the national finals.
Unique Campus Amenities
- Aquarena is home to our campus’ most beautiful natural feature — crystal-clear springs that feed the San Marcos River. The river meanders through campus and San Marcos and provides a home to several endangered species.
- The 3,485-acre Freeman Ranch, bequeathed to the university by Harry Freeman, is used by our students for farm, ranch, game management, educational and experimental purposes.
- Texas State’s Mitte Complex, named for alumni donors Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte, houses a state-of-the-art clean room in its microchip fabrication facility. Both undergraduate and graduate students use the facility to train for careers in the high-tech industry.
- The Wittliff Collections, housed in Texas State’s Alkek Library, include the Southwestern Writers Collection, which preserves and exhibits the literary papers and artifacts of principal writers, filmmakers and musicians, and the Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection, which houses the largest archive of modern and contemporary Mexican photography in the United States.
- The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center serves as a writer’s residence and site for lectures and seminars by Texas State’s Master of Fine arts in Creative Writing program. The home is a National Literary Landmark.
Distinguished Alumni
- Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1930, 36th president of the United States
- Roy F. Mitte, 1953 and 1956, founder of Financial Industries Corporation, a group of national insurance companies
- Tomás Rivera, 1958 and 1964, prominent author and former chancellor of the University of California-Riverside
- Gary V. Woods, 1965, president and CEO of McCombs Enterprises; former president of San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings
- Powers Boothe, 1970, Emmy-award winning actor, recently featured in the hit television series “Deadwood” and “24”
- Heloise (Ponce Cruse), 1974, syndicated columnist and author
- John Sharp, 1976, former Texas Comptroller
- T. Paul Bulmahn, 1978, founder and CEO of ATP Oil & Gas Corporation, an offshore development and production company
- George Strait, 1979, Grammy-nominated music artist and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
- Charles Austin, 1991, Olympic Gold Medalist
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