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TWU Timeline
1901 — The Girls Industrial College was founded by an act of the 27th Texas Legislature.
1903 — The first building, now known as Old Main, was constructed on campus.
1905 — The college's name is changed to the College of Industrial Arts (CIA).
1910 — CIA becomes the first institution of higher learning to establish and maintain a department of music.
1915 — The first bachelor's degrees are awarded at CIA.
1917 — The first kindergarten at a public institution was established at CIA.
1923 — CIA becomes an accredited member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
1930 — Graduate studies are established at the college.
1934 — The college's name changes to Texas State College for Women.
1953 — The first doctoral degrees are awarded.
1954 — The college's nursing program begins in Dallas, with the opening of its Parkland campus.
1957 — The college's name changes to Texas Woman's University.
1960 — The TWU Houston Center, located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, opens.
1972 — Men are admitted into TWU's graduate programs and undergraduate and graduate health sciences professions programs in Denton, Dallas and Houston.
1977 — TWU opens the Presbyterian campus, the university's second clinical center in Dallas.
1994 — Men are admitted to all degree programs at TWU.
Anecdotal information
House Bill 35, which created a public college for women in Texas, passed in 1901 by a narrow margin. It had received tie votes in both houses. The presiding officers of the House and Senate had cast the deciding votes, sending the matter to the governor's office for approval. Gov. Joseph Sayers signed the bill into law on April 6, 1901.
A previous effort to establish a public college for women in Texas had failed in the preceding session.
In 1902, Gov. Sayers appointed the first board of regents, which included three women — Helen Stoddard, Mary Eleanor Brackenridge and Mrs. Cone Johnson.
In January 1903, Cree T. Work assumed his duties as the first president of the college.
The fear that the college would prepare women for lucrative work was one of the reasons the Legislature set forth an explicit curriculum in HB 35, one that called for instruction in traditional subjects of women's work, including needlework, care of children, nursing and bookkeeping. To survive, the college had to remain faithful to the mandate, but the early leadership was determined that the college not become a trade school. Instead, the regents and President Work included traditional college subjects such as mathematics, history, economics and the sciences.
The first students began attending classes on Sept. 23, 1903.
Rules were strict regarding behavior of the boarding students. They had to be in bed, asleep, by 10:30 p.m. They could not go out in the evening at all, except to church or to a college-sanctioned activity. Company was allowed only on Sunday evenings, and no gentleman could call on a student unless written consent of her parents was on file in the president's office.
The Legislature had not provided any money for dormitories. A society of Methodist women built the first dormitory and opened its doors in 1907. A dorm paid for by state tax dollars opened in 1908.
On June 12, 1904, Beulah Kincaid became the first student to graduate from the college. She also became the founder of the Alumnae Association.
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