The Texas A&M University System was founded in 1876. The land-grant university was created by the Texas Legislature under the provisions of the Morrill Act.
The university is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation. It includes seven institutions – six universities and a national research and teaching center, each offering a wide range of academic programs through its Colleges of Agriculture, Engineering, Education and Human Development, Liberal Arts, Nursing, Natural Sciences and General Studies; its flagship university; its branch campuses; and its outreach centers across the state of Texas.
The Morrill Act of 1862 provided federal funding to establish universities in all states that were willing to offer military training to at least three-fourths of their students. The act led to a proliferation of state colleges and universities and eventually to the development of what we now refer to as “public” universities.
The first president of Texas A&M University was Col. Francis Richard Lubbock, who had served as interim president since 1865 when the school reopened after being closed during the Civil War. When he became president in 1872, it was renamed Texas Military Institute (TMI). It wasn’t until 1876 that the school adopted its current name: Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College (Texas A&M).
In 1883, TMI became a member institution of the Southwest Conference (SWC), which it remained a member institution until 1915.
