Institutional Name Change Records

Changing the name of Southwest Texas State University to "Texas State University" was proposed by and brought to the Texas legislature by three students: Robert Doerr, Justin Fisher and Ernie Dominguez. On June 18, 2003, Senate Bill 928 and House Bill 1961 was signed by Governor Rick Perry, which changed the name of the institution to Texas State University-San Marcos.

Once the name change bill was passed, the task of updating the name across campus was managed by T. Cay Rowe, Director of Media Relations and Publications. Rowe holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree from Texas Christian University. Her career began in the Texas Christian University office of communication in 1973. She accepted a public affairs position at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center in 1980. She joined Texas State University (then Southwest Texas State University) as Director of University Relations in 1988. She became Director of Media Relations and Publications at Texas State in 1994, which was the position she held during the 2003 name change. She was named Assistant Vice President for University Advancement in 2004 and retired from this position in December 2011.