Sul Ross State University (SRSU)

Sul Ross State University, in Alpine, Texas, is situated at the gateway of the Big Bend Country and the scenic Davis Mountains, and serves over 2,000 students. Small classes provide personalized attention and the opportunity for hands-on learning. This University offers 29 bachelors and 23 masters degree programs in the School of Arts and Sciences, School of Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, and the School of Professional Studies. The Sul Ross campus blends its traditional academic facilities with the surrounding natural environment of the Big Bend Region, which serves as classroom and laboratory. Students have access to the unique geology of the region, ranging from the Davis Mountains to the Chihuahuan Desert to the Rio Grande River. On-campus facilities, including the newly-renovated Wildenthal Library, the new Pete P. Gallego Center, the University Center, and the Graves-Pierce Recreational Sports Center, offer students and visitors alike spacious accommodations and state-of-the-art resources for academic, recreational, social, cultural, and athletic activities. University courses combine conventional educational methods with technological advantages. Graduates excel in numerous capacities at international, national, and regional levels. Sul Ross' ongoing educational mission includes encouraging lifelong learning and developing a sense of ethics and intellectual integrity.

On Friday afternoon, a university demolished 16 of 44 historic cottages on its campus in Alpine, Tex. All but three will be gone by this spring.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built 16 stone cottages at Sul Ross State University in 1935, and 28 brick cottages were added in 1948.

"It took 45 minutes for one machine to destroy all 14 of the historic native-stone cottages," says Elaine Peters, a Sul Ross junior who started the Save Our Cottages Campaign in September 2004.

University officials chose the cottages' site for a new 650-bed housing complex on its 93-acre main campus. The 2,000-student school's campus comprises 647 acres.

The Save Our Cottages Campaign urged President Vic Morgan to choose another site for the new dormitory, which will not add beds. Last month the group gathered more than 1,000 signatures on a petition in support of the cottages' preservation and presented it to Morgan and other university officials.

"I can personally testify that their charm is what draws many students to Sul Ross," says Pat Larum, a 1984 alumnus who signed the petition. "Before I attended Sul Ross, I was driving through town and saw the cottages up on the hill and thought to myself, 'I'm going to school there someday and live in one of those cottages. And I did. They had a lot of quaint charm."

Texas Monthly magazine agreed, naming the 360-square-foot cottages the state's Best Student Housing for 2004. The three remaining houses will likely become administration offices.

The Texas Historical Commission said in a letter to Morgan that the demolition "would be a tremendous cultural and architectural loss." The commission couldn't prevent that loss, however: Although the 1969 Texas Antiquities Code requires that the Texas Historical Commission review any demolition of a historic building, the code exempts state universities. The state university system's board and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board both approved the Jan. 21 demolition.

When the cottages opened in 1935, Sul Ross president H.W. Morelock praised the builders, saying, "In years to come, these men will point with pride to those monuments of beauty and usefulness to which they devoted their hand and heart and which will be a blessing to the community for all time to come."

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