Sul Ross at Texas A&M by John A. Adams Jr

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sul Ross at Texas A&M by John A. Adams Jr P. J. Vierra Sul Ross at Texas A&M. By John A. Adams Jr. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2021. Pp. 269. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.) In the early summer of 1896, a meeting took place in the small town of College Station on the campus of the Agricultural and Mechanical College, today known as Texas A&M University. The board of regents of the University of Texas (UT), as the UT System was then known, had traveled the eighty miles from Austin to meet in an unprecedented joint session with the board of directors of Texas A&M College, the first such gathering since the pronouncement that both institutions existed under the state’s constitution as the “University of Texas” in 1876. The assembled governing trustees coordinated certain admittance policies and practices, addressed curriculum overlap, and discussed how the two institutions would approach the next state legislative session regarding funding. The University of Texas regents also used the opportunity to announce officially [End Page 134] that they had elected George T. Winston of North Carolina to serve as the institution’s first president. The architect behind the joint session was Sul Ross, the president of A&M College and former governor of Texas. His adept handling of the meeting proved to the Austin regents that their support for an independent chief executive was correct. (Before this time, the University of Texas had followed the University of Virginia model, in which regents selected a part-time president of the board from among themselves.) The politically connected and astute Ross ably demonstrated how an independent chief executive might be better suited to navigate the treacherous shoals of Austin politics. John A. Adams Jr.’s monograph on Ross’s presidency provides not only a window into a period that transformed Texas A&M, but also a glimpse into the politics of Texas higher education. Adams’s research relies on a wealth of primary sources culled from several archives across Texas, which contributes to much of the book’s value. The time and resources invested by Adams show in his research, and his bibliography and notes will benefit researchers of higher education for years to come. Adams takes the reader through Ross’s contributions to the many cherished traditions that define Texas A&M today. Here we learn how students embraced the muster, class rings, marching band, school colors, and, of course, Aggie football, as well as a growing and involved alumni association. Curiously missing is any mention of Ross’s involvement in the origins of hazing, the notorious Aggie student custom that plagued the university through the first half of the twentieth century. The scandals associated with the illegal practice would eventually lead to a system for appointing a Texas A&M system chancellor in 1948 that, like the A&M presidency, the UT System would emulate in 1950. By not overly relying on secondary sources, Adams’s work rises well above the level of a hagiographic university publishing-house history. Still, as a publication of Texas A&M University Press, one imagines an editor from another university press insisting on Adams’s providing greater context for the reader. Such advice may have led Adams to compare the challenges faced by other institutional leaders during this same period, when the competition between citadelism (seeing the university as a place that students come to) and regionalism (seeing the university as a presence throughout the state) eventually led to the rise of public university systems. Nonetheless, Adams’s research should serve as an inspiration to Texas colleges and universities to support scholarship of this caliber on their own histories. Such a collection of monographs might help better explain the enigma that is Texas higher education, including the enduring riddle of how Texas A&M University remains a branch of a “University of Texas” to this day. [End Page 135] P. J. Vierra The University of Texas at El Paso Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association