What Tarleton has in store for the next 125 years

BY ANDREW UTTERBACK / Multimedia Journalist

Tarleton State University celebrated their 125th anniversary this year. Its President, Dr. James Hurley has played a large role in the recent exponential growth of the university, and has high hopes for its future. 

Dr. Hurley’s term as President began in August of 2019, and he first discussed the improvements since he took office. He said that Tarleton has improved their infrastructure by adding new buildings and parking lots. Several small maintenance projects have been done, such as replacing roofs, gutters and transformers so that students don’t just look good but feel good a well. 

He spoke on Tarleton’s plans for the next five years, emphasizing student growth, calling it “very strategic.” 

“We’ve averaged about five to six percent [growth] each year,” Hurley said. “It’s not too much, but it’s really, really steady. And that’s well above the national average.” 

Tarleton’s family is indeed growing, the university saw a record breaking freshman class this year and now have a little over 10,000 students on the Stephenville campus, with a total of around 18,000 including Waco, Fort Worth and the online campus. Dr. Hurley is working towards the goal of 28,000 students by the year 2030. 

“And we’re easily going to surpass that number,” Hurley said.

The Fort Worth campus is also doing great things. Dr. Hurley said that Tarleton has 80 acres of undeveloped space to work with by the campus, and the university is getting ready to secure funding for a third building. It’s located just 20 minutes from downtown Fort Worth and a little under an hour away from Dallas. 

Hurley says that because of the consistent population growth of the DFW metroplex, he could one day see the Fort Worth campus having more students than the main campus in Stephenville. No matter how many students each campus has, Stephenville will always be where the DNA of Tarleton will remain, making it the main campus forever.

Finally, Dr. Hurley spoke about his hopes for the next 125 years of Tarleton. 

“We’ve increased significantly. Our retention rates have increased. We’ve increased graduation rates. Obviously our enrollment growth is among the best in the country,” Hurley said. “We’ve added more faculty. We’ve added more staff to ensure that our students still maintain small class sizes. I mean, this institution is going to continue to grow. It’s going to grow for the next 125 years.” 

According to Dr. Hurley, Tarleton should “easily” be at 40,000 students in 125 years.

While Tarleton continues to see its enrollment numbers increase, the school’s culture, history, and family bond remain a strong focus. 

“But it’s important that we maintain the sense of who we are…And that doesn’t mean we don’t grow. We continue to grow. We’re just a larger family.” Hurley said. 

One stance that Hurley feels strongly about is if Tarleton started to put a cap on the number of students in its freshman class, it would take opportunities away from many prospective students. 

“There’s a good chance that a lot of other Texans would not have had the same opportunity. So again, it goes back to access, it goes back to opportunity,” Hurley said. 

“I think family is everyone that wants to be part of our family. We’re going to make them feel welcome and we’re going to make them feel included,” Hurley said. “We’ve got so much momentum now because so many students from across the state want to be part of it. And I think it’s our responsibility to ensure that they have an incredible experience.” 

The Stephenville, Texas based university was founded back in 1899 by John Tarleton and since then, Tarleton has become a D1 school with a record 18,000 students. In 1917, Tarleton became part of the Texas A&M system and has been growing ever since. Tarleton just had their 125 year ceremony and have several 125th anniversary themed events coming up throughout family week and homecoming.