History
John W. Gates of New York City,
one of the founders of Texaco, founded Port Arthur
Business College
in 1909. The school was organized to train people for the petrochemical
industry, then in its infancy.
Port Arthur Business
College became Port Arthur
Collegiate Institute in 1911, when the school was presented to the Board of
Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, a forerunner of the present United
Methodist Temple.
The church operated the growing campus until 1918, when it was turned over to a
non-profit Texas corporation.
This corporation had no capital stock and was overseen by a self-perpetuating
board of trustees. The name of the school was changed back to Port
Arthur Business College
and finally, in 1932, to Port Arthur College.
On July 31, 1974,
another milestone in the history of the school was reached. W. Sam Monroe,
President of Port Arthur College and a Lamar University Regent, presented his fellow members of the Lamar board a resolution seeking
merger of Port Arthur College
into Lamar University.
The 21 trustees of the school agreed that the merger would be in the best
interests of both institutions and their constituencies.
The 64th Legislature of the State of Texas
authorized the merger and appropriated $600,000 for the creation of the Lamar
University Center
at Port Arthur. On Aug. 21, 1975, the trustees presented
the deed for Port Arthur College
to the Lamar University Board of Regents. Classes began on the Port
Arthur campus on Aug. 28, 1975.
Since the merger in 1975, enrollment has increased from 151 students to a
peak of more than 3,000 and the curriculum has been expanded to more than 50
areas of study.
In 1977, the 65th Legislature approved House Bill 1134
renaming the campus as Lamar University-Port Arthur; the "Extension
Center" designation was
dropped.
In 1983, the 68th Legislature passed three bills which directly
affected the college:
1. Senate Bill 409 in effect deleted the restrictive
language of H.B. 130 (passed in 1971 by the 63rd Legislature),
thereby making Lamar University-Port Arthur eligible, on an equal basis with
other state institutions, for state funds to be utilized in the purchase of
land and/or buildings.
2. Senate Bill 410 provided Lamar
University regents with the
authority to levy a fixed student fee and the authority to bond against said
fee for the construction of a student center building on the Port
Arthur campus. This legislation was validated by a
majority vote of the Lamar University-Port Arthur student body in November
1983.
3. Senate Bill 620 created the Lamar University System.
Lamar University-Port Arthur thus became a component institution of that system
on Aug. 29, 1983.
In 1985, two bills affected the school:
1. Senate Bill 578 in 1985 provided that Lamar
University-Port Arthur should be renamed a beneficiary institution and receive
funds through the Higher Education Assistance Fund.
2. The General Appropriations Act of 1985 directed that a
formula be developed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to
provide operational funding to Lamar University-Port Arthur on the same basis
as other state-supported institutions of higher education.
Senate Bill 78 in 1989 removed
restrictions imposed by earlier legislation on the acquisition of real estate
and the construction of facilities on campus.
Senate Bill 843 in 1991 clarified the issue of
degree-granting authority by granting permission for Lamar University-Port
Arthur to issue associate degrees in its own name.
Effective Sept. 1, 1995,
by action of the Texas Legislature, the Lamar University System was abolished
and Lamar University-Port Arthur along with sister institutions in Orange
and Beaumont joined The Texas
State University System. With offices in Austin,
TSUS includes Angelo State
University, Sam
Houston State University,
Southwest Texas
State University
and Sul Ross
State University.
House Bill 1297 was signed into law in June 1999, changing
the name of the institution to Lamar State College-Port Arthur.
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