Texas State President outlines university’s goals at Rotary Club meeting

Service and diversity. Those were the two main themes that new Texas State University President  Dr. Kelly Damphousse talked about with the Rotary Club of San Marcos on Wednesday. Most observers would immediately highlight the university’s growth over the last few decades, but through that growth has come an increase in diversity in both demographics and academic offerings.

“The diversity of our campus is changing tremendously,” Damphousse said. “Several years ago ... we saw the changing demographics of the state and decided that we would become what’s known as a Hispanic Serving Institution. The bar for that is 25% of your student body being Hispanic. Well, that was already kind of happening, but we set a target for 2014. By 2012, we already hit that target. So by 2012, 25% of our student body was Hispanic and that was matching the growth and the change in Texas. This past fall semester, for the first time, the largest demographic on our campus is Hispanic — 44% of our student body is Hispanic — and Texas is kind of looking that way.”

As the university continues to evolve Damphousse said it will have to focus on service to its students as well.

“That’s making a tremendous impact on the state, because some of those folks are coming as first generation Americans. [They] are being given the chance to change the trajectory of their families here, and we’re proud of that designation,” Damphousse said. “We’re now seen as a Hispanic Serving Institution. What’s interesting, though, is the name Hispanic Serving Institution is really based on the number of students you have, so Hispanic Enrolling Institution is probably what it should be called. We really want to become a Hispanic Serving Institution, an African American Students Serving Institution and a White Students Serving Institution, International Students Serving Institution. We believe that we have a service to these young people … We feel like we have an obligation to provide for those people an opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives.”

He also discussed many initiatives that started before his tenure began, and highlighted some of the areas he plans to help the university focus on.

“The diversity of our academic offerings has increased dramatically,” Damphousse said. “We’re the 25th largest university in the country by undergraduate population. That shows something about how we’ve grown. But one of the things that’s interesting about our school is that we grew our undergraduate population really quickly, but we haven’t grown our graduate population. Graduate schools, masters, PhDs, doctoral programs haven’t kept pace.”

He said Texas State offers 12 PhD programs when the university should offer “40, 50 or 60.”

Damphousse talked about the university’s history as a teacher’s college, which is what attracted its most famous graduate, United States President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Now he sees a change in the breadth of studies offered with recent additions like the Ingram School of Engineering.

“It’s interesting to see the diversity of academic offerings,” Damphousse said. “We just now this past fall started a new engineering program — mechanical engineering — and we thought we would have about 60 students. We have over 200 students in it. So engineering is a big deal for us. We’ve not been an engineering school before … Engineering has only been around [at Texas State] for just a decade or so. It is now quickly becoming one of the largest degree granting colleges at the university. So, again, the diversity of academic offerings is changing tremendously.”

Damphousse also spoke on the topic du jour. How does Texas State improve on the football field and why is that important for a university?

“The sad truth about how higher education works in America right now is that the reputation of the school is not determined necessarily by the quality of students, although some people pay attention to that, or the quality of the faculty. By the way, we ranked very high in both of those,” Damphousse said. “But it’s oftentimes the quality of your football team. Again, that’s a sad statement, but that’s the truth. And when your football team is not performing at a high level, it reflects poorly on the university because people pay so much attention to that particular sport, even though you’re performing well in everything else.”

Damphousse made it clear that his expectation was for the football team to be playing in bowl games and doing so quickly.

“We set a target that we want to be qualifying for a bowl game every year, starting this year… We didn’t make that target, so we decided we had to make a leadership change. We brought in a coach [newly hired G.J. Kinne] who is scoring about 53 points a game, and right now he’s actually in the FCS semifinals … We think he’s going to bring a high-powered offense here. Defense wins championships, but offense can put [fans] in the seats and that is what we want. We need more fans] in the seats, and we think we have a good chance here.

“It’s not the driving force of the university, but it’s a reputational impact for us. We know we have to invest in football, and not just in hiring the coach but also facilities, assistant coach salaries and all those things that play into that. So we’re not just hoping for the best, we’re for holding people accountable, setting expectations of being bowl eligible every year, competing for a conference championship as often as possible and to see an upward trajectory.”

Whether it be for the university or the football team, it is apparent that Damphousse sets high goals. The College Football Playoffs will soon expand from four teams to 12 teams in 2024 with a possible expansion to 16 in the future.

“There is a slot in there for a Group of Five team to compete in the playoffs,” Damphousse said using the colloquial term for the level of football conference Texas State is in. “Why not us? Are we going to just let somebody else do this thing… That’s our goal, ultimately, to play in that playoff.”