When we first took the name "Texas State University - San Marcos" they were considering renaming the other universities in the system the same way, i.e:
Texas State University - Huntsville
Texas State University - Beaumont
Texas State University - Alpine
Thank God that never got any traction. Obviously Texas State didn't want it but neither did Sam Houston or Lamar. After a few years we were able to drop the San Marcos off the name.
this is incorrect there was no consideration of changing the other school's names at all
the -San Marcos was placed there to specifically make it look like a branch campus and not a flagship so that it had to be called Texas State-San Marcos officially so there was no attempt to call it Texas State similar to how UT-Austin is called UT or Texas or how Cal-Berkeley is called Cal......even though the UC System has no flagship now all UC System schools are treated as equals and funded the same based on the 1960s era "California Plan For Higher Education" that also placed all the Cal State Schools into a single system also with no flagship
the reason the Texas State System has no flagship is because of the nature of the system itself and the universities in it
the Texas State System was founded as the system for "normal colleges" IE teachers colleges and none of the schools were intended to be research universities or to offer a lot of masters or PhDs
as things in Texas grew rapidly and as different areas of the state got in fights and power grabs over things you ended up with the two main systems (like a lot of states have) one being like UT and the other being a Land Grant System like A&M
but then schools were created outside of those systems like Tech or schools were moved to be state supported publics instead of local supported like UH, schools left the Texas State System because their area legislators felt slighted like north Texas state or Stephen F. Austin then finally some schools left and after a while were merged into the UT and A&M Systems like Texas A&I or West Texas State or East Texas State
it just became a mess (matched only by Louisiana a this point)
the Texas State System is known as a "weak system" (which is not a slight) it means there is a system with no flagship, and each individual university lobbies the legislature on behalf of their own university instead of the system doing it for them
all other systems in Texas are "strong systems" with a flagship and the system lobbies for all the members needs
Texas, Tech, Aggy, UH, north Texas state......for a brief period of time Texas Women's called themselves a system, but they stopped that a decade or more ago and I am not sure any of their campuses in Houston or Dallas ever had their own accreditation
generally a "flagship" is the oldest, largest, and the university in the system with a clear research and Masters/Doctoral/Professional degree offering
so really with this definition Texas State even now only meets one of those things being the largest.....and perhaps now offering more masters degrees
Sam Houston is the oldest and for a while both Sam Houston and Lamar offered more Doctoral programs than Texas State did and that goes up to and until at least the name change
right now Lamar offers 8 Doctoral degrees, Sam Houston 10 plus a D.O. while Texas State offers offers 12 and several of those are relatively new
the Texas State System will almost certainly never be a system with a designated flagship it would be more likely the system would be broken up and merged into one of 3 or maybe 4 total systems in Texas with no independent universities (currently 4 independent universities in Texas TSU, TWU, SFA amd MSU, but MSU is about to merge into the Tech System barring something dramatic) and 6 systems: Texas State, UT, Tech, A&M, UH, and the failed north Texas state waste of a system
there is even a chance (very very very small) that Texas could move to have one "system" of governance like Florida and Georgia have moved to, but that is doubtful I would see it as more likely UT, A&M, Tech, and a "Metro System" that would catch the rest mostly in major metro areas or large population centers of Texas
www.tsus.edu
