Lamar University: Rankings, Programs, and Campus Life

Lamar University (LU) is a public research university located in Beaumont, Texas, USA. It is part of the Texas State University System and is known for its strong engineering, business, education, and nursing programs. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the fall of 2024, the university enrollment was 17,850 students. Lamar University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and named for Mirabeau B. Lamar.

Historical Overview

Lamar University started on September 17, 1923 as South Park Junior College, operating on the unused third floor of the new South Park High School. Louis R. Pietzsch founded a public junior college in Beaumont's South Park area at the direction of the South Park School District. Pietzsch acted as the first president of the college. In 1932, the college administration, recognizing that the junior college was serving the region rather than just the community, renamed it Lamar College. It was named for Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas, who arranged to set aside land in counties for public schools. A statue of him was installed in the quadrangle of the campus near the Setzer Student Center.

In 1933, the college was moving toward independence from South Park High School when construction began on new facilities. With the end of World War II, an influx of veterans boosted enrollment. The Lamar Board of Trustees asked the Texas Legislature to promote Lamar College to a four-year state college. The initial attempt in 1947 was led in the Texas House of Representatives by Jack Brooks and in the Texas Senate by W. R. Cousins Jr., failed, but the following year the two sponsors again advanced the bill through both houses.

Enrollment continued to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s, reaching 10,000 students. Graduate work was authorized in 1960 when master's degrees were offered in several fields. In 1969, Lamar State College opened its first branch at a center in Orange, Texas. In 1970, Lamar State College began offering its first doctoral program, the Doctor of Engineering.

Integration and Expansion

A group of African-American veterans of World War II, barred from admission on the grounds of race and calling themselves the Negro Goodwill Council, protested to Governor Beauford Jester about the exclusion of blacks from Lamar State College. They attempted to block the passage of the bill to change Lamar into a state-supported senior college, which resulted in John Gray, Lamar's president, creating a black branch of Lamar called Jefferson Junior College. It opened with evening classes at Charlton-Pollard High School. In 1952, James Briscoe, a graduate of Charlton-Pollard High School, applied to Lamar. His parents were laborers and members of the Beaumont chapter of the NAACP. The admissions office notified him that based on his transcript, he was qualified to enroll for the spring term of 1951. On January 29, when Briscoe went to register for classes, Lamar's acting president G. A. Wimberly explained that a mistake had been made and suggested he apply to TSUN, now named Texas Southern University. State law, he said, created Lamar for whites only.

Read also: Lamar's Visual Identity

In the summer of 1955, Versie Jackson and Henry Cooper Jr. became the lead plaintiffs of a class action lawsuit, Jackson v. McDonald, which sought to end Lamar's policy of racial segregation. In 1975, the university merged with Port Arthur College in Port Arthur, Texas, creating Lamar University-Port Arthur. In 1983, state Senator Carl A. Parker sponsored a bill creating the Lamar University System. In 1986, Lamar University-Orange and Lamar University-Port Arthur were granted accreditation separate from the main campus. In 1995, the Lamar University System was incorporated into the Texas State University System.

Recent Developments

In the fall of 1998, the Lamar University faculty numbered 423 and student enrollment was 8,241. Total enrollment reached 15,000 students in Fall 2012. The university, in anticipation of the return of the football program in 2010, renovated and upgraded Provost Umphrey Stadium (formerly Cardinal Stadium) and a new state-of-the-art Dauphin Athletic Complex.

In October 2014, Lamar broke ground for an administration building to be named the Wayne A. Reaud Building. The building houses the newly established Reaud Honors College. Another recent project included renovation of the Setzer Student Center. The renovation project had a $28 million cost. On November 22, 2021, the university announced Texas Legislature approval of $44.9 million in capital construction assistance toward expansion and improvements to the library.

Academics and Programs

Lamar offers 96 undergraduate, 50 master's and eight doctoral degree programs in seven academic colleges. The academic colleges are the College of Engineering, College of Education and Human Development, College of Business, College of Fine Arts and Communication, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Graduate Studies, and the Reaud Honors College. The university also has many academic units that fall outside of the five main colleges. The College of Graduate Studies handles graduate students. The Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement offers training and support to faculty and runs the university's Active and Collaborative Engagement for Students (ACES) Program. The ACES program is designed to provide support to high-risk students and integrate active learning methods into all core courses at LU. In the summer of 2009, Lamar University partnered with the University of Texas at Arlington to create an online dual credit program for high school students in Texas, stateu.com.

College of Engineering

The College of Engineering consists of five departments: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. Each of these departments offers a bachelors, masters and doctoral degree. Lamar Engineering was ranked #3 for return on investment by Payscale.com in 2021. Lamar Engineering's online 2+2 Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering degree option ranked #1 for best value by SR Education Group, an education research publisher founded in 2004. Rankings consider annual tuition, accreditation, and PayScale mid-career salary data to determine the best online colleges across the nation. Lamar Engineering was twice named among top degree programs by intelligent.com.

College of Business

The university established the College of Business in 1972. Before this time, degrees in business and economics were granted by the Division of Business, which was established in 1951, and the School of Business, established in 1954.

College of Fine Arts and Communication

The College of Fine Arts and Communication consists of six departments: Art & Design, Communication & Media, Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Music, Speech and Hearing Sciences, and Theatre and Dance. Lamar University is one of five universities in Texas that offer a clinical doctorate in audiology program.

Reaud Honors College

The Reaud Honors College was established in 2014. The honors program has been part of the university's academic offering since 1963.

Campus Life

Lamar University fosters a vibrant and engaging campus culture where students can connect with peers, participate in extracurricular activities, and gain leadership experience. Lamar University offers on-campus residence halls and apartments for students.

Recreational Facilities

The Sheila Umphrey Recreational Sports Center was completed for $19 million. The construction included renovation of the McDonald Gym, which had previously served as the university's sports center and home of the volleyball program. The naming of the center was made possible by a $5 million donation by local attorney Walter Umphrey in 2005. The 129,550-square-foot (12,036 m2) center includes a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) cardiovascular room, a one-tenth-mile walking/jogging track, a 43-foot (13 m) climbing wall, basketball, indoor floor hockey/soccer arena, volleyball, badminton courts and racquetball courts. The center also sports a wellness and fitness center, health food café and juice bar.

Student Activities

The Setzer Student Center, known colloquially as "The SET", hosts social and cultural activities throughout the year and is the hub for campus student organizations. During the Spring 2012 semester, the Student Government Association, led by then-president Andrew Greenberg, passed a student-wide referendum to finance the renovation and remodeling of the Setzer Student Center. The vote was passed with 81% approval.

Arts and Culture

The Dishman Art Museum serves as a teaching facility and art museum for Lamar.

Athletics

Lamar competes in the Southland Conference in NCAA Division I athletics for all of its varsity sports and at the NCAA Division I (FCS) subdivision level in football. Lamar has participated in practically every level of collegiate athletics from its inception as a junior college in 1923 to its gaining university status in 1971. The men's and women's teams are named the Cardinals and Lady Cardinals, respectively. The "Lamar Cardinals" (or "Cards") refers to the collegiate athletic teams of Lamar University. Lamar fields teams in 17 sports sponsored by the Southland Conference. LU sponsors 17 teams (8 men's and 9 women's). The Cardinals participate in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track and field, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, women's soccer, softball, women's volleyball, baseball and football. The newest teams are the reinstated football team beginning in 2010, and women's softball which began play in the 2013 season.

Football Program

Under former head coach Larry Kennan, his first team compiled a 6-3-2 record in 1979. LU set all-time attendance records under Kennan by averaging 16,380 fans in 1980. Games against Louisiana Tech (17,600) and Langston University (17,306) rank second and third, respectively, behind the standing-room-only 18,500 Baylor drew for the 1980 opener. The football program's signature win came on September 5, 1981, in Waco with an 18-17 victory over the No. On January 30, 2008, 78% of LU students voted to approve the athletics fee required for football's resurrection. This vote set in motion the football team's return for the 2010 season. Regents of The Texas State University System approved the athletics fee to reinstate football at its regular meeting February 20, 2008. On May 19, 2008, Ray Woodard was chosen as head coach for the football program. Aided by a major gift from an anonymous donor, the football field now bears the name W.S. After twenty seasons without a football team, the Lamar University Cardinals returned to the gridiron on September 4, 2010, and compiled a 5-6 record. The Cardinals opened Southland Conference play in 2011. The return of football to Lamar University was in part due to a major donation from Beaumont-based law firm Provost Umphrey.

Basketball Program

Founded in 1924, the men's and women's basketball teams at Lamar have both advanced deep into the NCAA tournament. The men's team has participated in four NITs and six NCAA tournaments, including four second-round appearances and one sweet 16 appearance.

Student Life Organizations

The University Press, also known as the UP, is the student newspaper of Lamar. 91.3 FM KVLU public radio is an NPR affiliate station broadcasting throughout southeast Texas. Lamar boasts 19 national fraternities and sororities. College Panhellenic Council (CPC) is the governing body for the three chapters at LU. National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) governs the eight historically African American fraternities and sororities. The Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) governs men's fraternities.

Alumni

The university has an alumni base numbering over 75,000. Current and former students of Lamar University are referred to as a "Lamar Cardinal", which comes from Lamar's mascot "Big Red", a cardinal. Several Cardinals have gone on to distinguish themselves nationally and internationally in sports, such as PGA Tour golfer Chris Stroud, MLB player Kevin Millar, and college coaches such as Billy Tubbs and Jim Gilligan.

Rankings and Recognition

In the 2026 edition of Best Colleges, Lamar University is ranked No. #395-434 in National Universities by U.S. News & World Report. It's also ranked No. #294 in Top Performers on Social Mobility. U.S. News & World Report is the global leader in quality rankings and provides easily accessible data that prospective students can evaluate when exploring higher education options. The publication’s ranking of best global universities assesses 1,750 institutions from more than 90 countries based on 13 metrics including academic research and reputation.

News in a statement. News & World Report rankings released in early September.“Lamar University is committed to providing our students with outstanding academic programs and co-curricular experiences as we promote their achievement of personal and professional goals,” said Dann Brown, associate provost for Academic Affairs. “This recognition would not be possible were it not for the hard work of our faculty and staff as they create and develop programs to serve students from a diversity of backgrounds. News developed this ranking by analyzing ethnic categories from each institution’s fall 2019 undergraduate student body, and generating a diversity index between 0 and 1 based on the data. The fall 2019 demographics depict Lamar University as a Predominantly Minority Institution (PMI) with a majority of enrollees as African American, Hispanic or Asian. “LU is an amazingly diverse institution,” said Dr. Jaime Taylor, president of Lamar University. “It’s exciting to see so many perspectives within the learning environment. The institution with the highest diversity index among ranked national universities is the University of Hawaii - Hilo at 0.77, while the highest diversity index in Texas is 0.73, belonging to Texas Woman’s University.

News & World Report's 2015 rating of "National Universities" placed Lamar in Tier Two. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) published research on the requirements for the core curriculum at 715 four-year colleges in August 2010. The study compared institutions based on their dedication to the fundamental topics thought to be necessary for a competitive, well-rounded education. Only 16 institutions received an A rating, including Lamar.

General Information

Lamar University is a public institution that was founded in 1923. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 8,218 (fall 2024), and the campus size is 292 acres. The student-faculty ratio at Lamar University is 28:1. Lamar University accepts the Common Application. The school's in-state tuition and fees are $10,894; out-of-state tuition and fees are $23,044. Sixty-eight percent of first-year students receive need-based financial aid, and the average net price for federal loan recipients is $12,002. The four-year graduation rate is 18%. Six years after graduation, the median salary for graduates is $47,077.

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