Lamar College
 |
|
|
Former names
|
South Park Junior College Lamar College Lamar State College of Technology |
|---|---|
| Motto | Living the Legacy, Inventing the Future |
| Type |
Public State University Space Grant |
| Established | September 17, 1923 |
| Endowment | $106.826 million |
| President | Kenneth Evans |
|
Academic staff
|
634 (as of 2014) |
| Students | 15,022 |
| Undergraduates | 10,304 |
| Postgraduates | 4,718 |
| Location | Beaumont, Texas, U.S. |
| Campus | Urban, 292 acres (1.18 km2) |
| Colors | Red and White |
| Athletics | NCAA Division I – Southland |
| Nickname | Cardinals / Lady Cardinals |
| Affiliations | TSUS |
| Mascot | Big Red the Cardinal |
| Website | www |
 |
|
Lamar University, often referred to as Lamar or LU, is a public coeducational doctoral/research university in Beaumont, Texas. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2016, the university enrollment was 15,022 students. Lamar University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Louis R. Pietzsch founded a public junior college in Beaumont's South Park. He had become intensely interested in the junior college movement while enrolled in summer school at the University of Chicago in 1918, and by 1921, was convinced that South Park should have a junior college.
Lamar University started on September 17, 1923 as South Park Junior College, operating on the unused third floor of the new South Park High School. Pietzsch acted as the first president of the college. South Park Junior College became the first college in Texas to receive Texas Department of Education approval during the first year of operation, and became fully accredited in 1925.
In 1932, the college administration, recognizing that the junior college was serving the region rather than just the community, renamed it as Lamar College. It was named for Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas. Because he arranged to set aside land in counties for public schools, he is regarded as the "Father of Texas Education." A statue of him was installed in the quadrangle of the campus near the Setzer Student Center. The inscription is: "The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy and, while guided and controlled by virtue, the noblest attribute of man. It is the only dictator that freemen acknowledge and the only security that freemen desire."
...
Wikipedia