Establishment (1969 to 1970s) , officially founding UTSA|alt= The University of Texas at San Antonio was officially founded on June 5, 1969, by the
61st Texas Legislature as
H.B. 42 and signed into law by Governor
Preston Smith. Frank Lombardino, a conservative Democrat who represented northwest Bexar County in the state legislature, was known as the "father of UTSA" due to his impassioned advocacy for the institution. When Governor Smith signed the bill officially establishing the university, he did so on the back of Lombardino in a ceremony in front of the Alamo. At the university's inaugural commencement, the first diploma was also signed on Lombardino's back. In 1970, the University of Texas Board of Regents appointed the university's first president,
Arleigh B. Templeton, who served from 1970 to 1972, and received a land donation of in far northwest San Antonio for the site of UTSA. The architecture firm of Ford, Powell and Carson Inc. was assigned to develop a master plan for the university. , and Milton Babbitt designed the Main Campus, including this plaza.|left The 671 graduate students composing the first class at the university began attending classes on June 5, 1973. UTSA began with five colleges: Business, Fine and Applied Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Multidisciplinary Studies, and Science and Mathematics. By 1975, the university's colors were being discussed among student leaders and the administration. UTSA's third color of blue, in addition to orange and white, was selected, beating out other proposed colors such as "fiesta red" and "cactus green".
The John Peace Library opened the next year, serving as the new administrative headquarters for the university. The discussion of a university mascot soon followed the selection of school colors. In the fall of 1977, an election was held to determine the school's mascot, with "the armadillos" and "the stars" taking the top two spots. However, the referendum was declared void by the student government, and a new election was held with nine candidates and a write-in option. The top two choices from the second election, the
roadrunner and the
armadillo, campaigned in a competitive run-off. On December 9, 1977, the roadrunner was announced as UTSA's first and only mascot. In 1978, James W. Wagener, a graduate of
Southern Methodist University and former acting dean of the
University of Texas Health Science Center, was selected to be UTSA's third president. At the end of the 1970s, enrollment numbered 9,400 undergraduate and graduate students. It was immediately elected to Division I status in the NCAA. The Student Representative Assembly oversaw the burial of a time capsule in 1983, the university's 10th anniversary, instructing it to be opened on June 5, 2023. In 1986, UTSA acquired the
Institute of Texan Cultures, a center for multicultural education in the state, as a campus. In 1994, the
U.S. Department of Education designated UTSA as a
Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). On the first day of fall classes in 1996, a
campus shooter stormed into the John Peace Library. The perpetrator, Gregory Tidwell, murdered head of cataloging Stephen L. Sorensen before fatally shooting himself in the chest. The University Center expanded in the late 1990s, breaking ground in 1995 on the 97,500-square-foot, $13.2 million building, dubbed "UC Phase II", which included the new Retama Auditorium and UTSA Bookstore. The Downtown Campus opened the doors to its permanent location on
Interstate Highway 10 and
Cesar Chavez Blvd. (then Durango Blvd.) in 1997. During his tenure, UTSA would grow 68% in student enrollment while adding new programs and facilities.
Expansion and growth (2000 to 2009) In the early 2000s, UTSA embarked on a long-term campaign to dramatically increase its national prestige and selectivity. A Master Plan was created in 2007 as a guide for this campaign and to direct the future physical growth of the institution. The UTSA 2016 strategic plan, formulated at the same time, is guided by the Master Plan and formed the basis for the development of the university into a "premier research institution" by 2016.
John T. Montford—a San Antonio businessman, former chancellor of the
Texas Tech University System, and a member of the Texas State Senate from 1983 to 1996—eventually established the UTSA President's Dinner and, in 2007, the event raised US$4.6 million. From 2006 to 2009, UTSA completed over $250 million in construction projects. The $84 million, five-story Biotechnology, Sciences and Engineering (BSE) Building opened its doors in 2006. The university underwent extensive remodeling in 2009, renovating older buildings such as the John Peace Library (JPL), the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS, now known as the McKinney Humanities or MH), and the Multidisciplinary Studies (MS) buildings. A new ceramics studio broke ground in 2009, and two adjacent science buildings underwent $24 million in renovations. The $83 million Applied Engineering and Technology building (AET) also opened its doors in 2009. A year later, the AET Library opened as the nation's first completely bookless library on a college or university campus. Proposition 4 was passed by Texas voters in November 2009. This legislation names 7 emerging research universities in Texas, UTSA being one, that could compete for additional state funds in an effort to increase the number of Tier-One institutions in Texas. Factors such as research expenditures, graduate degrees awarded, and scholarly productivity all play a part in which schools receive the most funding.
Further expansion (2010 to 2020) The
first-time undergraduate acceptance rate was 60% for the Fall of 2013.
U.S. News & World Report ranked UTSA's admissions process as "selective". In 2010, the university hit an enrollment benchmark of 30,000 students, signifying a growth rate of more than 39% over the past decade. UTSA was one of the fastest-growing universities in Texas during this decade, reaching an enrollment of nearly 31,000 students by 2012. However, in 2011, the Center for College Affordability and Productivity ranked UTSA's freshmen as the second most "unhappy" in the country, based on low retention rates. The associate vice president and members of the Student Government Association refuted this claim. That same year, the university fielded a football team as an NCAA Football Championship Subdivision independent, with
Larry Coker as the inaugural head coach. The following year, 2012, UTSA, the city's sole
NCAA Division I university at the time, became a member of the
Western Athletic Conference; one year later, it moved to
Conference USA. In 2014, the "New" North Paseo building (NPB) was completed and now houses Computer Science and Cyber Security labs and classrooms. The NPB is also home to the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS), the Center for Education and Research in Information and Infrastructure Security (CERIIS), and the Institute for Cyber Security.
Ricardo Romo, who had served as president since 1999, resigned on March 3, 2017, after having been placed on administrative leave. Pedro Reyes served as interim president from February through August 2017. On September 1, 2017,
Thomas Taylor Eighmy, the vice chancellor for research and engagement at the
University of Tennessee at Knoxville, began serving as UTSA's sixth president. On June 9, 2017, UTSA introduced the largest construction project in its history with the announcement of a $95 million science and engineering building, which opened in fall 2020. On September 6, 2018, the university announced that it had received a $15 million gift from San Antonio business leader Graham Weston and a $70 million commitment from The University of Texas System Board of Regents for construction of two new facilities at its Downtown Campus for a National Security Collaboration Center and a proposed School of Data Science which opened January 9, 2023, and became the first and only data science school in the state of Texas. Following an incident in 2018, where a student was escorted from a lecture hall, a professor was suspended for a separate classroom management issue, and later was not reinstated despite a petition from over 900 students.
Modern university (2021–present) In 2021, the College of Engineering and the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning were merged to form the new College of Engineering and IntegratedDesign (CEID), which was officially launched on September 1, 2021. UTSA also acquired the Southwest School of Art, which became part of a new school within UTSA's College of Liberal and Fine Arts. Toward the end of 2021, UTSA attained Carnegie Tier One research status. The university also announced a partnership with the
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) to create a new School of Public Health. The first
Master of Public Health (MPH) students were admitted in 2024, and Vasan Ramachandran was hired as dean of the new school. In September 2023, UTSA introduced a dual degree combining medicine and artificial intelligence. Medical students spend four years at the
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio's (UT Health SA's) Long School of Medicine and one year at UTSA. Upon completion, graduates earn a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and a Master of Science degree in artificial intelligence. which is centered on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and computer and data science, and was set to launch in Fall 2025. In August 2024, the
University of Texas Board of Regents announced that UTSA and the
UT Health Science Center at San Antonio would be merging to form a "world class university in San Antonio". The merged universities, approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in June 2025, retained the UTSA name, with current UTSA president Taylor Eighmy leading the new combined institution as of September 1, 2025. ==Campuses==