Texas State president outlines his vision for raising academics, continuing growth

Texas State University is focused on raising its academic profile and continuing to grow its enrollment in the coming years, the San Marcos school’s president told university system regents.

Texas State President Kelly Damphousse outlined his vision as part of the two-day quarterly meeting last week for the Texas State University System’s board of regents. The board oversees all the schools in the Texas State System, which also includes Lamar University, Sam Houston State University and Sul Ross State University.

In a report submitted to regents, Damphousse said Texas State’s top priority is to achieve designation as an R1 Carnegie research institution. Governed by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, R1 status is awarded to schools with “very high research activity.” There are about a dozen R1 institutions in Texas, including the University of Texas at San Antonio, UT-Austin and Texas A&M University-College Station.

Texas State continues to look for ways to grow its enrollment, Damphousse said in his report, pointing to international students and online enrollees as potential growth segments. Texas State had 35,103 students enrolled in the current semester as of Jan. 11. The school’s largest enrollment was 38,940 in 2016, according to the report.

As the school has grown in recent years, university officials have looked to increase student housing options. Two new residence halls are scheduled to be completed within two years, and the university recently purchased two San Marcos apartment complexes that it intends to convert to student housing.

“As a result, TXST will offer nearly 10,000 beds on our San Marcos campus by Fall 2025, ensuring a vibrant dynamic living and learning environment,” the report said.

Texas State also is soliciting offers to “design, finance, construct, operate and maintain a 150 to 250 room full-service hotel” on campus. The hotel would be at 429 N. Guadalupe St. in downtown San Marcos, the current site of the Richard A. Castro Undergraduate Admissions Center. The university hopes to break ground on the project in early 2025 and complete it in 2026.

Damphousse said the school also is “laser-focused” on expanding its Round Rock campus, which has about 1,800 students. The university wants to grow that number to 10,000, according to the report.

Damphousse’s report also pointed to some of Texas State’s recent achievements. Those included the Bobcat football team earning the school’s first-ever bowl game bid in December, highlighting Damphousse’s focus on athletics since he became school president in July 2022. The school also announced in November that it will be the site of the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season.