Year In Review: Highlights At Texas A&M In 2019

Texas A&M’s student enrollment became the largest at any university in the country.

 

The number of students on campus in College Station, branch campuses in Galveston and Doha, Qatar, and other sites around the state continued to climb in 2019. Fall totals pushed Texas A&M University to the top of the list for enrollment among United States universities. Approximately 69,465 students enrolled this fall.

The number of degrees granted surpassed 500,000.

The university reached two major milestones in May – its network of former students surpassed 500,000, and it recorded more than 500,000 degrees awarded since Texas A&M opened in the fall of 1876.

The Aggie community marked the 20th anniversary of the Bonfire collapse.

The Texas A&M community remembered the lives of 12 Aggies who died in the Bonfire collapse on Nov. 18, 1999. President Michael K. Young said at the Remembrance Ceremony that the legacy of those who lost their lives is shown through the thousands of acts of service performed by Aggies every day.

Texas A&M marked a year since the passing of President George H.W. Bush.

The late president’s legacy and dedication to selfless service was honored throughout the year. The Union Pacific 4141 funeral train that carried Bush to his final resting place on campus has been donated for permanent display on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Union Pacific and the George & Barbara Bush Foundation announced last month.

Ross Bjork was welcomed as the new Director of Athletics.

 

After serving in the same position at the University of Mississippi, Ross Bjork was selected as Texas A&M’s new athletic director on May 23. He officially began his duties in June, when he was introduced to the campus community.

The new John D. White ’70 – Robert L. Walker ’58 Music Activities Center opened.

The $40 million building at George Bush Drive and Coke Street features four soundproof rehearsal halls, 32 individual practice rooms, administrative offices, a student lounge and an artificial turf field for the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. The 70,000 square-foot facility replaced the 50-year-old E.V. Adams Band Hall. The Music Activities Center is expected to better serve the needs of all instrumental and choral students, who are being housed together for the first time.

A new program was launched for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

 

Aggie ACHIEVE (Academic Courses in Higher Inclusive Education and Vocational Experiences) became the state’s first inclusive, four-year postsecondary education program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The certificate-based opportunity for young adults aims to expand their interests and prepare them for employment. The first cohort of students this semester lived on campus, participated in classes and served in clubs and organizations.

The Center for Phage Technology continued the battle against “superbugs.”

Tom Patterson, a psychiatry professor at the University of California-San Diego contracted a multi-drug resistant superbug on vacation in Egypt. In a bid to save his life, his wife called Texas A&M’s Center for Phage Technology, the only center of its kind in the nation for phage research. They shared how the Texas A&M research saved Patterson’s life, and what his case means for future phage therapy in the United States.

Construction began on the $130 million Combat Development Complex at RELLIS.

 

The Texas A&M University System, the U.S. Army and Army Futures Command broke ground on the Bush Combat Development Complex at the RELLIS Campus. The complex, named after the late President George H.W. Bush, will allow the System to provide an ecosystem to accelerate research and technology development to modernize the Army. A cooperative agreement between Army Futures Command and the A&M System will provide up to $65 million over the next five years to support research in new technologies to advance national security.

Texas A&M earned the highest rating for free speech.

The Foundation of Individual Rights In Education (FIRE) gave Texas A&M its highest rating for free speech – making it the first and only university in Texas to attain “green light” status. The rating indicates that the university’s written policies do not imperil student or faculty free speech. Texas A&M is one of only 45 universities nationwide to earn the rating.