Texas State University System

The Texas Legislature established the State Normal School Board of Regents in 1911, which would later become the present-day Texas State University System, for the control and management of the state normal schools for white teachers. The board originally assumed authority over North Texas State Normal College (founded 1890), Sam Houston Normal Institute (1879), Southwest Texas Normal School (1899), and West Texas State Normal College (1909).

The Legislature authorized the establishment of Sul Ross Normal College and the purchase of the private East Texas Normal College, founded in 1889, in 1917 That same year, the Legislature authorized the renaming of the system's normal schools to normal colleges. Political struggles for the creation of Stephen F. Austin Normal College and South Texas Normal College (Texas A&M-Kingsville) were resolved in 1921. Further legislation in 1923 renamed the system's members again to state teachers colleges while the board was renamed the Board of Regents, State Teachers Colleges. South Texas left the system in 1929 to be governed independently as Texas Arts and Industrial College (Texas A&I) before eventually joining the Texas A&M University System as Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Sul Ross and West Texas received name changes in 1949 becoming Sul Ross State College and West Texas State College. North Texas would leave the system the same year becoming independently governed North Texas State College. North Texas would later become the flagship campus of the University of North Texas System. Similar name changes would result in Southwest Texas State College in 1959 and Sam Houston State College in 1965. West Texas State College became West Texas State University in 1963.

The year 1965 also saw the incorporation of Angelo State College, founded as a junior college in 1928, into the system. With these changes, the board became titled the Board of Regents, State Senior Colleges. All of the system's components had their names changed from state colleges to state universities in 1969 while East Texas (Texas A&M-Commerce) and West Texas (West Texas A&M) left the system entirely in 1969 to become independent before settling on their present affiliations with the Texas A&M University System. Stephen F. Austin left the system the same year and continued to be an independent with its separate governing regents outside any of the state's other university systems, until 2023, when its regents elected to join the University of Texas System.

Sul Ross established upper-division and post-graduate study centers in 1973 on campuses of Southwest Texas Junior College in Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Uvalde.

The Legislature conferred upon the system in 1975 its present designation as the Texas State University System. Angelo State University was re-designated as a member along with Sam Houston State University, Southwest Texas State University, and Sul Ross State University.

In the most transformative change to the TSUS in its history, the Lamar University System was abolished in 1995 and its four members were incorporated into the TSUS: Lamar University (founded 1923), Lamar Institute of Technology (1995), Lamar University Orange (1969), and Lamar University Port Arthur (1909).

Southwest Texas State opened an extension center in 1996 housed in temporary buildings adjacent to a Round Rock high school. After a 2004 land donation, the permanent Texas State University Round Rock Campus was opened in 2005.