page_title: History of East Texas State University
section_title: Admissions crisis and increasing standards
hierarchical_section_title: History of East Texas State University / Admissions crisis and increasing standards
caption_attribution_description: English: The James G. Gee Library on the campus of Texas A&amp;M University–Commerce in Commerce, Texas (United States).
context_page_description: The history of East Texas State University comprises the history of the university now known as Texas A&M University–Commerce from its renaming as East Texas State University in 1965 to its admission into the Texas A&M University System and renaming as Texas A&M University–Commerce in 1996. During this era, ETSU was led by five different presidents: James Gilliam Gee, D. Whitney Halladay, F. H. "Bub" McDowell, Charles J. Austin, and Jerry Morris. The ETSU period witnessed substantial swings in student enrollment, which grew from 8,890 in 1968 to 9,981 in 1975 before falling to 6,867 in 1985 and partially recovering to 8,000 in 1992. The university's physical plant expanded steadily throughout the period, from 87 buildings on 150 acres valued at $19 million in 1965 to a campus spanning 1,883 acres worth approximately $150 million by the 1990s.
  Major structural changes to the university during the ETSU era included the creation of a separate ETSU board of regents in 1969 and the approval to open a branch campus in Texarkana in April 1971.
context_section_description: In spring 1972, President Halladay resigned suddenly after his wife's suicide. Vice President for Administration F. H. "Bub" McDowell was named the next president of the university, despite his lack of a doctoral degree or administrative experience at any school other than East Texas State. Born in Paris, he worked for the school for a total of 45 years, first being hired immediately after graduating with a bachelor's degree from what was at the time East Texas State College (ETSC). Reynolds argues that, while some people "suspected cronyism", McDowell's appointment helped the university maintain continuity as well as fiscal integrity. McDowell developed a reputation for making decisions privately, being "intensely loyal" to the university and demanding loyalty from others, and being averse to criticism. He was also willing to experiment with new ideas, however, such as the innovative New Center for Learning that was created in 1975. He also supported the creation of the Federation of North Texas Area Universities, a three-university consortium dedicated to sharing faculty, library resources, and computer services with the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University; MACH III, a program that provided counseling and tutoring to disabled and minority students; Upward Bound, a program to support disadvantaged minority high school students in local schools; and Project MICRO, a federal government-funded program to accept Micronesian students. The latter program, however, accepted students who did not meet the general admission standards, which Reynolds argues "was probably detrimental to the academic reputation of the university".
  Another wave of new construction on campus occurred during McDowell's tenure, which witnessed the construction of a Creative Arts Village in 1975, a new Department of Agriculture building and a Performing Arts Center in 1976, and a new print shop in 1979. Numerous other buildings were remodeled or expanded, including the president's home (in 1972) as well as Binnion Hall, Henderson Hall, and Mayo Hall. In the June 1974 issue of Texas Monthly, Richard West lamented the $90,000–100,000 cost to the state incurred by the remodeling of the president's home. He referred to the house, which featured a new elevator, an expanded dining room, and a solarium, as a "bush-league Bauer House", in reference to the $923,315 residence of University of Texas System Chancellor Charles LeMaistre.
  While ETSU's faculty remained well-staffed during this period, however, its student enrollment numbers continued to trend downward: after peaking at 9,981 in fall 1975, it slid to 8,322 by fall 1980, a drop of 17% in just five years. All substantive efforts at remedies, including lowering some admission standards, failed to reverse the trend. This also hurt the university's funding, as state institutions in Texas were funded by credit-hour production. However, McDowell's cautious management of ETSU's finances "may well have saved the university" from the challenges it faced during the 1980s. In January 1982, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70, McDowell stepped down from his post.
  On February 1, 1982, Charles J. Austin was named the next president of ETSU. He was formerly the vice president for academic affairs at Georgia Southern College, and had previously worked for Trinity University, the University of Colorado Medical Center, and the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He held degrees from the University of Cincinnati, the University of Colorado, and Xavier University. Almost immediately after being named president, Austin turned his attention to the university's declining enrollment, which had shrunk to just 7,628 by spring 1982, his first semester as president. He made the decision to address the crisis by raising admissions standards, admittedly a risky approach. In his own words, he rationalized that ETSU's "single most important commodity" was its academic reputation, and that "[r]elaxing standards in order to attract students is not the answer to long-term growth and devel
caption: The James G. Gee Library in 2016
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