Early in 1970, Billy Mac Jones, President of Southwest Texas State University, initiated a study of the potential for the University to participate in the development of the Texas healthcare workforce. In the fall of 1971, based on the study’s recommendations, Southwest Texas State University proposed an Allied School of Health Professions, and the following spring, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education approved the proposal. Thus, the Allied School of Health Professions had its official beginning on April 24, 1972.

Before long, the School was a leader in university-based education in the health professions. However, the School was not without its critics. Most people had no concept of the problems involved in integrating healthcare educational programs into the academic environment. Many were skeptical that a school of health professions could not succeed outside a metropolitan area and without convenient access to clinical facilities. One example, the School succeeded to award associate degrees in nursing until 1979. The courses were taught at Baptist Memorial Hospital in San Antonio and graduated 244 students. Others questioned the appropriateness of offering health professions programs at an academic institution, despite the fact that medicine was one of the first courses of study to be offered at early universities. Critics believed that such programs were merely “training” and had no place in traditional higher education.

But those people involved in the earliest stages of the School’s shared a vision, and many critics are amazed at how quickly the School became a reality. The rapid development of such a multi-faceted technical and professional discipline in higher education was unprecedented. Professionals in the health professions worked alongside faculty members to transform the complex disciplines into the solidly established fields of study that they are today.

During the first years of the Allied School of Health Professions, only three people were employed: a dean, Dr. Don C. Green, who also served as department chair; a program director, Mr. Cade Harkins, who was also the only faculty member; and, a secretary, Ms. Roxanne McKimmey. With an annual budget of $30,000, the School offered its first program, Inhalation Therapy (now Respiratory Care), to an initial enrollment of twenty-four students.

There were no similar schools in Texas to use as models for combining academic and clinical education; in fact, there was no guarantee that students would enroll in these courses. The students did come, and to such an extent that teaching overloads became accepted as normal. Working long hours in healthcare settings and traveling hundreds of miles per week to provide courses on-site became a way of life for faculty. Facilities that were inadequate, substandard, and often borrowed did not dampen the faculty’s enthusiasm for their programs. Camaraderie developed among faculty as they moved from such places as a coffee room, an old house, the old Education Building, the Science Building and Strahan Gym, Old Main, San Marcos Hall, Lavaca Hall, the Den (a former student “snack shack”), a building on the old San Marcos Academy campus (condemned while it was occupied), to its home in its own beautiful building with state-of-the-art facilities. The shared camaraderie contributed to the realization of the vision as much as the individuals who honored their commitment to the School, its programs, and students.

In 1997, on the School of Health Professions twenty-fifth anniversary, it was one of the largest schools of its kind in Texas, with eight departments and programs offerings of fourteen graduate and undergraduate degrees. In addition to these departments and programs, the School had its own computer lab, the Health Resource Center, the Texas Long Term Care Institute, and the Walter H. Richter Institute of Social Work Research. In 1997 there were 1,367 undergraduate and graduate majors taking courses from 65 full time faculty members. At this time the School had graduated 732 students with Associate Degrees, 2,702 students with Baccalaureate Degrees, and 1,071 students with Master’s Degrees.

Today, Texas State University-San Marcos's College of Health Professions is organized into nine academic units, a School of Social Work, Departments of Communication Disorders, Health Administration, Health Service Research, Respiratory Care, and Physical Therapy, and Programs in Clinical Laboratory Science, Health Information Management, and Radiation Therapy. Baccalaureate degrees, Master’s degrees, and certificate programs are offered. Over 600 affiliation agreements are maintained to provide clinicals, internships, and field experience for the students. In addition to these academic units the College continues with a specialized computer lab, the institutes of Texas Long Term Care and Walter Richter School of Social Work Research, clinics for Physical Therapy and Speech Language Hearing, and specialized programs including the Texas State Sleep Lab, the Physical Therapy Telehealth program, and the Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) program.

We celebrate the commitment of everyone who has helped build the College of Health Professions: students, faculty, staff, and administrators. They dared to believe in the vision of educating health professions in a university centered environment, they committed themselves to the vision, and we honor this success.