The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley opened in 2015 by merging UT-Pan American and UT-Brownsville, but its Edinburg roots go back to 1927, when a small junior college started classes in town. That school became Pan American College in 1952, a full university in 1971, and joined the UT System in 1989 before growing into one of the state's largest universities. This walk begins at the Gothic auditorium built for the original junior college and then crosses into the modern campus to visit its library archives, student union, arts building and athletic venues. Plan on roughly two miles in the Valley sun, so bring water.
About this site
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is a public college or university in Edinburg, Hidalgo County. It is one of 2 degree-granting colleges and universities TexasRoam maps in Hidalgo County.
The site sits at 26.3046, -98.1665 near Edinburg. The nearest cataloged historic site is Edinburg Junior College Auditorium (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Southern Pacific Depot, Hidalgo County Jail, Old, and Hidalgo County.
UTRGV is one of the newest universities in Texas, yet its roots run back almost a century. Its Edinburg side began in 1927 as Edinburg College, a two-year school overseen by the Edinburg school district, which became Pan American College in 1952, a state senior college in 1965, Pan American University in 1971, and the University of Texas–Pan American after joining the UT System in 1989. In Brownsville, the University of Texas at Brownsville had grown up alongside Texas Southmost College. In December 2012 the UT System regents voted to merge the two universities, the Legislature approved the plan in June 2013, and the regents chose the name University of Texas Rio Grande Valley later that year. The merger also created a medical school for the region, and the UTRGV School of Medicine won preliminary accreditation from the national medical-school accreditor shortly after the university opened. UTRGV welcomed its first students on August 31, 2015, adopting the Vaqueros as its athletic identity. Today it serves students on campuses in Edinburg and Brownsville and at clinical and research sites across the Valley, and it ranks among the largest U.S. universities with a majority-Hispanic student body.
See this site and every marker, cemetery, courthouse, museum and landmark across Texas on one live map — find what's near you, get directions, and check in as you roam.
