History of the University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas was originally conceived in 1827 under an article in the Constitución de Coahuila y Texas to open a public university in the state of Texas. The Constitution of 1876 also called for the creation of a "university of the first class." Thus, they created The University of Texas. Since the school's opening in 1883, the University of Texas has expanded greatly with the Austin campus remaining the flagship university of the ever growing University of Texas System. By the late 1990s, the university had the largest enrollment in the country and contained many of the country's top programs in the areas of law, architecture, film, engineering, and business.

Establishment

Upon Texas's independence, the Congress of the Republic of Texas adopted the Constitution of the Republic, which made its own provision to establish a system of public education in Texas. President Mirabeau B. Lamar's first speech to the Texas Congress iterated the need for education in a democracy; two weeks later, Ezekiel Cullen presented a report to the committee on education that contained a bill providing that twenty leagues of land be set aside for two colleges or universities, Texas A&M and the University of Texas. By the time Cullen's bill became a law on January 26, 1839, Congress had agreed to set aside fifty league of land. In addition, in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated "College Hill."

Congress failed to act any further until 1858,...
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