Campuses
Texas Tech University is the largest institution of the Texas Tech University System, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 students. The university also operates the Research Center-East Campus (Lubbock); Texas Tech University Farm at Pantex in the Texas Panhandle; research facilities at Reese Technology Center (west of Lubbock); agricultural field laboratories at New Deal; Texas Tech University Center at Junction (411-acre educational facility in the Texas Hill Country); and off-campus educational sites at Brownwood, El Paso, Forney, Fredericksburg, Highland Lakes (Marble Falls), Jefferson, Sherman (Austin College) Waco, and Johnson County. The university also has a campus in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Location
With a population of more than 260,000, Lubbock is in the heart of the vast Southern Plains of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. The city is a major regional center for business and industry, including a major medical center with a level-1 trauma center servicing a 300-mile radius around Lubbock. The climate is excellent, with more than 3,550 hours of sunshine every year and average annual rainfall of 18 inches. Winters are dry and moderate, while the summer heat is tempered by very little humidity. Several airlines and an interstate bus line serve the city, as well as an interstate highway and three U.S. highways.
History
Texas Tech University was created by legislative action in 1923 and has the distinction of being the largest comprehensive higher education institution in the western two-thirds of the state of Texas. The university is the major institution of higher education in a region larger than 46 of the nation’s 50 states, and it is the only campus in Texas home to a major university, law school, and medical school.
Originally named Texas Technological College, the college opened in 1925 with six buildings and an enrollment of 914. Graduate instruction began in 1927 within the School of Liberal Arts. A “Division of Graduate Studies” was established in 1935, which became known as the Graduate School in 1954.
By action of the Texas State Legislature, Texas Technological College formally became Texas Tech University on September 1, 1969. At that time, the schools of Agricultural Sciences, Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, and Home Economics also became known as “colleges.” Architecture became a college in 1986. Two colleges changed their names in 1993 to reflect the broadening fields each serves: the College of Agricultural Sciences became the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, and the College of Home Economics became the College of Human Sciences. The Honors College was established in 1998, and the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts opened in 2002. Media & Communication became a college in 2004.
The Texas State Legislature authorized funds in 1965 for establishing the Texas Tech University School of Law, and the Law School’s first dean was appointed in 1966. The first class of 72 students enrolled in 1967. The Law School was approved by the American Bar Association in 1970 and is fully accredited by the Supreme Court of Texas (1968) and the Association of American Law Schools (1969).
In 2019, the Texas Legislature appropriated $17.35 million to Texas Tech University and directed the institution to undertake the steps necessary to open the School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM). Located in Amarillo, the SVM welcomed its inaugural class in the Fall of 2021, fifty years after the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (then the Texas College and University System Coordinating Board) initially approved Texas Tech.
As a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Texas Tech began competing in the Big 12 Conference in 1996 after a 35-year membership in the former Southwest Conference.
Texas Tech was first accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1928 and has been accredited continuously since that time. Texas Tech University was selected to shelter a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 2006.
The presidents of Texas Tech have been Paul Whitfield Horn (1925-1932), Bradford Knapp (1932-1938), Clifford Bartlett Jones (1938-1944), William Marvin Whyburn (1944-1948), Dossie Marion Wiggins (1948-1952), Edward Newlon Jones (1952-1959), Robert Cabaniss Goodwin (1960-1966), Grover Elmer Murray (1966-1976), Maurice Cecil Mackey Jr., (1976-1979), Lauro Fred Cavazos (1980-1988), Robert W. Lawless (1989-1996), Donald R. Haragan (1996-2000), David J. Schmidly (2000-2002), Jon Whitmore (2003-2008), Guy Bailey (2008-2012), M. Duane Nellis (2013-2016), and Lawrence E. Schovanec (2016-present).
The 61st Legislature created the Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1969 as a multi-campus institution with Lubbock as the administrative center and regional campuses in Amarillo, El Paso, and the Permian Basin. In 1979, the charter was expanded, and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center was created with the addition of the School of Nursing, the School of Health Professions, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
With the creation of the Texas Tech University System in 1996, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center became a separate institution.
In 2007, Angelo State University in San Angelo joined the Texas Tech University System. The school was founded in 1928 as a two-year college and began offering four-year degrees in 1965.
In 2013, the Texas Legislature approved the creation of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso as the System’s fourth institution.
And in 2021, Midwestern State University, a leading liberal arts university in Wichita Falls, became the fifth component institution of the Texas Tech University System following signed legislation from Governor Greg Abbott.
Financial Support
The university is a public institution that receives a portion of its operating funds from the Texas State Legislature and student-paid tuition. State-appropriated funds are made available from the Higher Education Fund and Capital Construction Assistance funds for the construction and renovation of academic and general buildings. State-appropriated funds are not used to support residence halls, intercollegiate athletics, student publications, health services, or the Student Union.
Student fees, along with gifts and grants from private individuals and organizations, provide critical additional funds to support scholarships and fellowships, faculty research, student services, student activities, and campus facilities.
Organizational Structure
A nine-member Board of Regents governs Texas Tech University, Angelo State University, Midwestern State University, and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Centers in Lubbock and El Paso. The Governor of the State of Texas appoints the Regents to six-year terms. The terms of office of three Regents expire every two years. The university’s governance, control, and direction are vested in the Regents, who in turn appoint a Chancellor to carry out the system’s policies as determined by the Regents. The Chancellor appoints a president for each institution in the system. The presidents are chief executive officers of their respective institutions and are responsible for the strategic operation of each institution.
Texas Tech University is home to the Graduate School ; School of Law; School of Veterinary Medicine; Honors College ; Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources ; Huckabee College of Architecture ; Rawls College of Business ; Whitacre College of Engineering ; Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts ; and the Colleges of Arts & Sciences , Education , Human Sciences , and Media & Communication . Each college is administered by a dean and consists of many instructional departments or areas.
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