Top 24 Moments: 2024

The lives touched by the McCoy Foundation will always be part of Emmett and Miriam McCoy’s legacy. The best part about celebrating the 20th anniversary of the foundation was listening to our students talk about their life-changing experiences since coming to TXST.

It was a day of highlighting teachers! After the College of Education’s annual Future Teachers Conference, Beth and I headed out to celebrate the 30th anniversary of COE’s Teachers Fellows Program. This 15-month master's program is a partnership with Leander, Hays, Round Rock, and Lockhart ISDs.

I’m thrilled about our landmark partnership with University Federal Credit Union (UFCU) that will rebrand the football stadium as UFCU Stadium. Our 15-year, $23 million partnership is the largest corporate sponsorship in the Sun Belt Conference for naming rights at a football stadium and one of the largest for a college football stadium in Texas. This is just the beginning to a relationship that will benefit our students, university, and the community.

We held signing events to celebrate our new transfer partnership with Austin Community College and Collin College in North Texas. These partnerships provide clear transfer paths to TXST and allow students to co-enroll and earn a bachelor’s degree. Both of these opportunities save thousands of dollars in tuition for students while giving them an opportunity to reach their higher education goals. More to come!

Twenty-eight years ago, Round Rock partnered with TXST to establish our campus north of Austin. This month, the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce named our campus “Business of the Year” during their 56th annual Business Awards celebration.

Do you feel the need for speed? We’re partnering with Coast Flight Training, Texas Aviation Partners and the City of San Marcos to offer an aviation science degree. This will address the national pilot shortage by creating a pathway for professional pilot licensure starting this fall.

I’m so proud of the strides we’ve taken to get our Musical Theatre Program to the next level. That work is paying off, and people are noticing. “The Hollywood Reporter" just named us as a top 25 drama school in the world. We’ve produced so many talented alumni, including the actors we recently saw perform on Broadway.

For the second time in the last three years, we won the Sun Belt Conference's Vic Bubas Cup, which is awarded annually to the conference's top athletic department. This is a testament to our Athletics program across all sports for continuing to have successful seasons. As a bonus, we are currently in the lead for the 24-25 Cup!

Over the summer, we piloted our first Education Abroad Summer Hub through a partnership with the University of Padova, Italy. These new Summer Hubs will offer students a meaningful international experience at an affordable price point. In 2025, we are truly going global by expanding to Scotland, Spain, Costa Rica, and Australia.

It was a great day for a groundbreaking ceremony for our new 168,000 square foot STEM Classroom Building for Mathematics and Computer Sciences! Many thanks for Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall and Student Government President Olivia Alexander for joining us for an exciting look into the future.

I’m proud to share that after years of trying, our team led by Honors College Dean Heather Galloway, Bill Keleman, and Catherine Jaffe has succeeded in bringing a Phi Beta Kappa chapter to TXST. We are only the 5th public university in Texas to host a PBK chapter, the oldest in America.

Beth and I enjoyed participating in the second annual JumpStart where we joined Head Coach GJ Kinne, Victoria Black, Student Government, TXST Cheer, Boko, Student Involvement and Engagement, Housing, and others in encouraging our 8,200+ freshman as they begin their college careers at TXST.

Through the tireless work of our TXST Global team and other partners, we signed an agreement with the Elisia Education Hub in Querétaro, Mexico. We will spend the next year planning the degrees that we will offer starting in Fall 2025.

It was a historic day for TXST and San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District as we partnered to offer a dual credit program. This allows about 30 high-achieving high school juniors and seniors to attend classes on our campus. This is a win-win for all of us!

Thank you to Terry Foundation Executive Director Yvonne Moody for celebrating TXST’s 20th anniversary of our becoming a “Terry” school. More than 400 TXST Terry Scholars have received more than $24 million in scholarships over those 20 years.

Congratulations to the Peña family for being awarded Family of the Year. It was lovely visiting with Abigail, a senior in McCoy, and her mother Valerie. After learning about them, I popped by the Dean’s List event to congratulate those exceptional students.

Trying something new as we transition from our monthly “The Current” video series to a podcast. Many thanks to Squarin’ Around hosts and alums Andrew Zimmel and Jakob Rodriguez for being my first guests! Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

What a Thursday night it was at CELEBRATE 125. Thank you to our Special Projects and Student Success teams for making it happen, to Bobcat Marching Band, Cheer, and Strutters for entertaining us, and to Grupo Fantasma and Josh Abbott Band for serenading us with their music.

Congrats to our oldest (and original) academic college — the College of Education — on celebrating 125 years of excellence. Our most famous alum (LBJ) graduated with an education degree. TXST holds true to our legacy; we graduate more future Texas teachers than any other university in the world.

The rain moved us indoors, but it was still a huge day for TXST as we officially broke ground for our newest Round Rock Campus building! With 200 freshmen this fall (for the first time ever) and over 1,300 applicants already for the Fall 2025 semester, we are going to need that new space!

Shout out to my college buddy Mickey for joining me for six hours of chilly fun at ESPN's College GameDay down the road in College Station! Thanks to all the TXST alumni who showed up, especially Eric Wiede, who was there the whole time too.

As it always is, December 2024 Commencement was a wonderful way to end the year as I watched so many Bobcats walk across the stage to receive their degrees. What made it even better was seeing more than 300 2020 grads return to campus to finally get their chance to walk and jump in the river.

Lots of smiles at our 125th anniversary event with President George W. Bush. I’m so grateful for all the hard work by our teams to pull off this event. Thank you to Chancellor McCall for moderating. The best part of the evening was putting our students front and center. President Bush was so generous with his time, asking each one their name and hometown. The President Leadership Class, Student Government, Gold Star Society, Bobcat Country, and Mariachi Nueva Generación had a blast.

What an exciting year for TXST Athletics. We won conference championships in women's outdoor track and field and women's golf while also winning the conference tournament title in softball. Volleyball took home the Sun Belt Conference Championship and football had another successful season as we head for our second bowl game in back-to-back seasons. Shout out to all our student-athletes, coaches, and staff for their contributions to putting TXST Athletics on the national stage.