My guess is to distinguish it from the larger Texas State University System, of which it is a part, or to avoid the misconception that it’s the flagship campus of the Texas State University System…
Or, maybe the guys that made this movie had a copyright.
Well, TxState is the largest institution of the Texas State University System, which was originally the Texas State Normal Schools, then Texas State Teachers Colleges, then finally Texas State University System. Founded in 1911, it predates the A&M “system” by 37 years.
The University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System are the big ones and split the proceeds from the Permanent University Fund (2/3 and 1/3 respectively, IIRC)
Other state university systems that receive public funds and have boards appointed by the governor are the University of North Texas System, the University of Houston System, and the Texas Tech University System.
Hmmm… Actually I hadn’t realized they had “San Marcos” as part of the official name, but notice how they downplay that part of their name on their website
Does anybody know why Maryland only has the University of Maryland- there is no Maryland State University? I see Massachusetts has the same system. I’ve been wondering this ever since I was a student at Maryland mumble years ago. Maryland has universities with names like Bowie State University and Frostburg State University, but those are all part of the University of Maryland system (I think technically it’s called the University System of Maryland). Just to confuse the issue, there’s also University of Maryland Baltimore County, which is also part of the same system…
It’s probably as prosaic as the towns getting named after the states, just like towns often get named after cities in Europe. (I think there are some towns named after regions or countries in Europe, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.) California, PA was founded around the time of the Gold Rush, so that name would make sense. Then a university was founded in the town, and was named after the town- also very common.
I believe all those Colleges started out as seperate (maybe private) schools, but decided to keep their names after being incorporated into the UM system. There is some good background info here…University System of Maryland - Wikipedia
After graduating from UM College Park, I did some time at UMBC (1989-1991ish). Despite it’s name, it was not part of the UM System, but it’s Engineering/CompSci departments were. I had to literally transfer in all my UMCP classes to get a 2nd BS at UMBC. Some classes did not even transfer in, and none of the grades did (which I believe was customary if you transferred to a satellite campus.
A bit of insight into some of the terms used in the thread would help my understanding. What’s a land grant university? Do they have a statue of Grant buried somewhere on campus? Were they granted the land they sit on? Was it railroad-like, as in they were granted vast tracts of land to sell off in order to raise funds?
A normal university was referred to a few times up thread. Does that mean it’s a hippy-free school? Was it used to distinguish itself from a land grant uni? Does that mean all non-land grant schools are normal?
And what’s a teacher’s college? Don’t all colleges have teachers? Or were they originally established as relatively narrow trade schools of sorts, a school a teacher would go to to get a teaching certificate? Was it for K-12, college, post-grad, or what? Come to think of it, wouldn’t teacher’s colleges be passé now? Granted, getting a physics degree from MIT says something more than one from Podunk U, but someone with a degree from any accredited university and go on to teach. Have teacher’s colleges broadened their offerings and now are teacher’s colleges in name only?
Lastly, what’s a public ivy? Sounds, well, sounds a bit like a school with an inferiority complex. Is there a list of schools that carry the distinction, or is it just a general term for good non-ivy schools? I can’t see someone from, say, the U. Chicago, Stanford, or Berkeley having such issues, so I’m assuming that it’s something more. Is it something like the Seven Sisters (isn’t that a bunch of New England schools that were traditionally all female?)
This was something I probably should have gotten straightened out in undergrad. I went to Columbia University, which was across from Barnard College, next to Teacher’s College, a couple blocks from the Manhattan School of Music, and kitty-corner from the Jewish Theological Seminary … all offering degrees.
The federal government provided for the donation of public land for the establishment of universities to teach agricultural and mechanical sciences.
From the French ecole normale. A place that trains people to be school teachers.
You got that one. It’s the same thing as a normal school, a place where people are trained to be teachers.
The standards for training teachers and university professors are different. Getting a doctorate degree in physics from M.I.T. doesn’t qualify you to teach science in high school. Still, there are few stand-alone teachers colleges these days. It’s rolled into the regular university system in most places.
The term originated with the author(s) of a book that purported to identify the nation’s best state universities. It’s not an official term.
Well, let’s do this properly then. There are no state universities with the names:
Alaska State University
Connecticut State University (although there do exist Eastern, Western, Southern, and Central Connecticut State University)
Hawaii State University
Maine State University
Maryland State University
Massachusetts State University
Nebraska State University
Nevada State University (but there is a Nevada State College)
New Hampshire State University
New Jersey State University
New York State University
Rhode Island State University
Vermont State University
Wisconsin State University
Wyoming State University
University of Indiana (but there is an Indiana University)
University of New Jersey
University of New York (but there is a private New York University)
University of Ohio (but there is an Ohio University)
University of Pennsylvania (but there is a private University of Pennsylvania)
University of West Virginia (but there is a West Virginia University)
Wow. So that’s what A&M stands for! Are they still mostly agricultural and engineering schools, or can someone from Texas A&M hold a degree in liberal art? If someone at Texas A&M majors in, say, philosophy or music, are they campus oddities or has the A&M focus greatly diminished over time?
Kind of. The official title of Rutgers is “Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.” Rutgers is the only state university I know of where the state name is not commonly associated with the university.
Funny thing about that. 30 years ago I went to the University of Southwestern Louisiana, which gave Ph.Ds and had a much better Computer Science Dept. than LSU - with plenty of funded research. After I left the name got changed to the University of Louisiana. LSU got royally pissed, and got the state legislature to change it back. It then got changed back again, and is the U of L today. So sometimes titles are more about politics and power than quality.
Course this is Louisiana - information might not be applicable to the United States.
The A&M in Texas A&M used to stand for Agricultural and Mechanical, but now it’s just letters. They offer degrees in just about everything you’d expect from a large state university, but still have recognized programs for agriculture and veterinary sciences that aren’t available elsewhere nearby.
Well, I should have included that one in my parenthetical remarks. But I left it out because few people know it as anything other than “Rutgers.”
If you look at my Wikipedia link for land-grant colleges in Post No. 35, you’ll see that very few land-grant institutions have “agricultural and mechanical” or “A&M” in their names. Even if they started out that way, they’ve become full-service universities, and, in some cases (such as Ohio State University), the flagship university of the state system. And, generally speaking, that includes the ones that have kept “A&M” in their names. They’re full-service universities.
I know you’re joking, of course, but just in case someone might be misled:
The owners of the copyright in the movie “Necessary Roughness” do not have and could never have acquired copyright or trademark interest in the term “Texas State University.” It would be very difficult if not impossible for the author of a work that included a fictional “Texas State University” to stop the State of Texas from setting up a real Texas State University, had one not existed before the movie was released.
Nitpick re New York. True, there is no “New York State University” nor a “University of New York.” Instead, the state university system is unified under the head of “State University of New York”, with most of the individual schools being “the State University of New York College of Arts and Sciences at [Oswego, Potsdam, Morrisville, New Paltz, etc.]” (and of course some specialized schools like the College of Ceramics and the College of Environmental Science and Forestry). The three or four largest, multi-college elements are “the State University of New York at [Stony Brook, Albany, Buffalo, and I think Binghamton]”.
On the other hand, the “University of the State of New York” is the closest thing in existence to the luminiferous ether – it has neither buildings, students, nor faculty, but only a governing Board of Regents whose duty it is to prescribe the required curricula for elementary and secondary education in the state.
I think you’ll see I covered this point in Post No. 32.
As an aside, these institutions seem to be moving away from the “State University of New York” nomenclature in favor of Binghamton University, Stony Brook University, University at Albany, and University at Buffalo. I suspect they might be phasing out the “SUNY” part altogether.
LSU is the same way although it doesn’t nearly the military presence of Texas A&M. The extremely large ROTC programs makes Texas A&M different in that regard.
I visited LSU with a friend that wanted to major in poultry science. They have all of the specialty animal science majors that you could ever want. They also have a good veterinary school. They have professors during cutting edge animal and crop research. LSU also has programs where you can live on farms close to campus and do actual farm work while you study. The list of other agricultural resources is a lot bigger than I listed but I am not an expert on that. They probably have classes on tractor driving, equipment maintenance, and agricultural finance and economics.
Northwestern Illinois University??? Maybe you mean Northern Illinois University. Certainly you don’t mean Northwestern University, a private school, for sure.
Basically it’s a matter of historical focus- they both offer most all disciplines, but generally, the better regarded programs are at the school that traditionally did that kind of thing.
A&M is still primarily known for the agriculture & life sciences stuff, as well as the engineering stuff. The sciences are decent as well. Some of the liberal arts/social sciences are well regarded, while others aren’t so well regarded. For example, when I was in school (early-mid '90s) there was no major in music, and they just announced the ability to minor in drama.
UT is kind of the opposite- if they have agriculture programs at all, I’ve never heard of them, and their primary focus is more liberal arts & science, although they have highly regarded engineering programs as well.
He (?) probably meant Northeastern Illinois at Bryn Mawr.