UT Commencement

The University of Texas at Austin (UT) opened in 1883 with eight professors, four assistants, a proctor, and 221 male and female students. The first set of graduates, consisting of thirteen law students, attended UT commencement on June 14, 1884. By World War I, enrollment rose to 2,254 and by World War II to over 11,000. African Americans were admitted in 1950, and by 1966, there were 27,345 students. Over the next 40 years, the university continued to expand. In 2009 enrollment reached over 50,000, ranking it as one of the top ten largest public universities, and the number of degrees conferred totaled 12,861.

Sources:

Berry, Margaret C. UT History 101: Highlights of the History of the University of Texas. Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1997.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. University of Texas at Austin, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/UU/kcu9.html (accessed July 14, 2010).

National Center for Education Statistics. Fast Facts: Enrollment of the 20 largest degree-granting college and university campuses, Fall 2007. U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=74 (accessed July 14, 2010).

Office of Information Management and Analysis. 2009-2010 Statistical Handbook. University of Texas at Austin. http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ima/stat_handbook (accessed July 14, 2010).

From the guide to the UT Commencement Records 63-014; 64-012; 66-031; 66-112; 66-188; 67-120; 67-176; 68-024; 69-011; 69-055; 93-292; 84-048; 96-247; 97-008; 97-173; 97-191; 98-243; 98-308; 99-243; 2006-047; 2011-035., 1884-2010, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)