Corpus Christi · Nueces County · Public · Official site
Texas campuses and the stories they hold.
About the campus
Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi occupies Ward Island, a patch of land on Corpus Christi Bay that the Navy used during World War II as a closely guarded school for radar and airborne electronics. The Baptist-run University of Corpus Christi moved in late 1947, and after Hurricane Celia battered the campus in 1970 the state took it over, eventually making it part of the Texas A&M System in 1989. This walk moves from the island's wartime story to the plaza honoring civil rights leader Dr. Hector P. Garcia, then on to the library that holds his papers, the performing arts hall, and the Gulf research institute on the water.
About this site
Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi is a public college or university in Corpus Christi, Nueces County. It is one of 2 degree-granting colleges and universities TexasRoam maps in Nueces County.
The site sits at 27.7127, -97.3230 near Corpus Christi. The nearest cataloged historic site is Karankawa Indians (historical marker), about 1.0 miles away. Others within a short drive include Seaside Memorial, Sunshine Cemetery, and General W.W. Sterling.
Texas A&M–Corpus Christi traces its start to April 1, 1947, when Arts and Technological College received its charter as a private, four-year liberal arts school tied to the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Its first classes met at Chase Field, a closed naval air station in Beeville, and after a short stay at Cuddihy Field the school, renamed the University of Corpus Christi, settled for good in December 1947 on Ward Island along Ocean Drive, reusing a former Navy radar training school. Enrollment climbed past 700 by the mid-1960s but slid to about 500 by 1972, and Corpus Christi voters approved bonds so the private campus could be bought and handed to the state. Under a plan the Legislature approved in 1971, Texas A&I University at Corpus Christi opened there on September 4, 1973, as an upper-division and graduate school with 969 students. It became Corpus Christi State University in 1977, was brought into the Texas A&M University System after lawmakers merged state systems in 1989, and took its present name in 1993. The Legislature also allowed it to expand to four-year status, and its first freshman class arrived in September 1994. Nicknamed the Island University for its setting between Corpus Christi and Oso bays, it is now classified as an R2 doctoral research university and is home to coastal research units such as the Conrad Blucher Institute.
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