Texas A and M University - El Rancho Yearbook (Kingsville, TX)

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JHi tany. ojj tke A movement to found a college in South Texas started in 1913. The legis- lature in 1917 authorized the establishment of The South Texas Normal but, upon the entry of the United States into the World War, indefinitely postponed the opening of this Normal. When in 1923 the legislature changed all normal schools in the state to teachers colleges, it also provided for fixing the site and fixed the date of opening for the South Texas State Teachers College. The college opened at Kingsville in June, 1925. In 1929, the Forty-first Legislature passed Senate Bill 293 which changed the name and purpose of the college. Section 1 of Senate Bill 293 reads as follows: “There is hereby established in Texas, in the city of Kingsville, Kle- berg County, a coeducational institution of learning for the white youth of this state, which shall be known as the Texas College of Arts and Industries, and the South Texas State Teachers College is hereby merged into said institution, the same to be conducted, operated, and maintained under a new Board of Direc- tors as herein provided,” The new Board of Directors were to provide departments of agriculture, business administration, engineering, and home economics and were to proceed at once toward transforming the teachers college into a technological college. The change became effective with the opening of the fall semester in 1930. It is further provided in Section 3 of Senate Bill 293 that the Board of Directors of the Texas College of Arts and Industries “shall continue the Teach- ers College permanently, and for the first year shall continue it just as they find it, and in no case shall they weaken the organization of the Teachers College nor diminish its efficiency. But they shall control, manage and equip said Teachers College so that it may continue to grow and expand in every way to meet the needs of South Texas for a strong college tor the training of teachers for the public schools of this section—provided that the name shall be changed and the South Texas State Teachers College as at present constituted shall become a per- manent and important part of the greater Texas College of Arts and Industries.” The state board of vocational education in September, 1933, designated the college a training school for teachers of vocational agriculture under the Smith- Hughes Act. In December of the same year the college was admitted to full membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The college is a member of the Association of Texas Colleges. In October. 1935, the Board of Directors authorized the beginning of gradu- ate teaching. The Master of Arts and the Master of Science degrees were pro- vided for, and work was begun in June, 1936.