The NEXT IS NOW campaign has funded capital improvement projects at the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses, enhancing educational facilities for students to explore topics ranging from media to health sciences, engineering, and business.
The Anatomy Lab at Willow Hall on the Round Rock Campus.
Round Rock Campus
In Round Rock, Willow Hall, a health professions building, opened in 2018. It’s one of three educational and administration buildings on the Round Rock Campus, which traces its roots to the Avery family. In 2003, the Averys donated 101 acres of land that had been in the family for six generations to TXST for a permanent Round Rock Campus.
San Marcos Campus
In San Marcos, The Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation, with $5.9 million in total giving, continued its longtime support of the Alkek Library with the creation of the Alkek Laboratory for Immersive Arts & Sciences (ALIAS) Virtual Production Studio, which is part of Alkek One.
Alkek One’s ALIAS Virtual Production Studio, Alkek Library.
My grandfather [Albert Alkek] knew former TXST President Jerome Supple well and when the campus needed a new library, he decided to contribute to the campaign. I remember going to the dedication of Alkek Library. Since that time, we’ve continued supporting the library as the space evolved into Alkek One. We feel obligated to make the Alkek Library a key resource for the campus community.
Charlie Williams
President of the Albert & Margaret Alkek Foundation
Also at Alkek Library, The Wittliff Collections, an archive and gallery dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Southwest and Mexico, grew its collection thanks to Susan Toomey Frost. The author, collector, and lecturer began her association with The Wittliff with her donation of a dining chair owned by American folklorist and writer J. Frank Dobie.
“Perhaps the happiest thing that can befall a donor is knowing that the objects they so passionately pursued are being exhibited and used.”
“I was impressed with what the Wittliffs, founders of The Wittliff Collections, and the university were doing in San Marcos,” recalls Frost, whose contributions amount to $570,500 overall. “It was such a rewarding experience working with Bill Wittliff and The Wittliff staff that I began donating the rest of my collection of Mexican photographs, postcards, books, and related material.”
Indígenas de Ixtlahuaca, México by Guillermo Kahlo, donated by Susan Toomey Frost in 2013.
Frost has since donated thousands of items to The Wittliff, including her collection of Guillermo Kahlo photographs, postcards, and books, and photographs by Hugo Brehme and Walter Elias Hadsell.
“Perhaps the happiest thing that can befall a donor is knowing that the objects they so passionately pursued are being exhibited and used,” Frost says.
The dedication of Ingram Hall
In 2018, TXST opened Ingram Hall, named for long-time TXST benefactors Bruce and Gloria Ingram, as the new home of the College of Science and Engineering and other science programs.
Other capital projects that came to life through the NEXT IS NOW campaign include the Alumni and Future Student Welcome Center at the LBJ Student Center; and at STAR Park, the Archives and Research Center (ARC), which houses over six miles of shelving to protect valuable university collections.
