STEM on the Rise

It didn’t take a computer whiz or a mathematical genius to realize the numbers weren’t adding up. The Department of Computer Science and Department of Mathematics had long outgrown the shared Math and Computer Science Building, which opened in 1982. For the past few decades, each department has operated out of multiple buildings across the San Marcos Campus.  

Such dispersion can dilute a department’s identity, notes Aubrey Holt, a Department of Computer Science administrative assistant and its representative in Campus Master Plan discussions. “There has sometimes been a disconnect of students understanding the identity of Computer Science, because they’re not always seeing our offices or faculty,” she says.  

A similar sentiment is shared by Dr. Paul Dawkins, chair of the Department of Mathematics. “Like most things at this university, math has grown a ton. We’re really a huge unit with more than 100 faculty,” Dawkins says. “And so, we’re kind of spread all over.”

That’s about to change, thanks to the 2025–2035 Campus Master Plan, which includes the new STEM Classroom Building. Currently under construction, the eight-story, $137 million facility is on track to open Fall 2026, allowing both Mathematics and Computer Science to consolidate under one state-of-the-art roof for the first time since the 1980s.  

Of all the plans laid forth in the TXST Master Plan, perhaps no area of the university is seeing a more immediate impact than the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Quad. Set on the western side of campus, it has emerged as a nexus of scientific and engineering education and research. Just across the street from the STEM Classroom Building, the 1,000-bed Richard A. Castro Hall opened for the Fall 2025 semester. A portion of the residence hall is dedicated to STEM and Art & Design Living Learning Communities, maximizing the residents’ potential for academic success.  

Future plans for the STEM Quad include a pedestrian bridge over Comanche Street to improve access from east campus to Ingram Hall and the new STEM Classroom Building; the Integrated Science and Discovery Building, which will support interdisciplinary STEM programs and house the relocated Chemistry and Biochemistry department; an expansion of the R.F. Mitte Building; and a new parking garage along Lindsey Street.

The Department of Computer Science dates back more than 50 years, founded when TXST received a Univac Athena Missile Guidance Computer from the federal government during the presidential administration of alumnus Lyndon B. Johnson. Athena, which utilized transistors rather than microchips to function, was so large it took up the entire first floor of Lampasas Hall, yet it boasted less computing power than an entry-level smartphone.  

“We can all find applications on our phone that have been influenced by our faculty,” Holt says. “We have really wonderful faculty members who care a lot about their research, their students, and pushing technology forward.” 

For Mathematics, new facilities give the department an unprecedented opportunity to expand and enhance math education research—a field where TXST is already counted among national leaders. Dawkins notes that the new STEM Classroom Building will have dedicated research classrooms for studying undergraduate teaching and learning. 

“We have a very large and established math education Ph.D. program and have recently added a Ph.D. program in mathematics,” Dawkins says. “That means that we do a lot of research in our own classrooms. In the past, when we’ve tried to gather data, we’ve had to try to unobtrusively bring video cameras and other equipment into other people’s classrooms to observe. That’s not ideal.”

"The new research classrooms are going to significantly enhance our math education research abilities.” 

Holt notes that math and computer science make fitting neighbors. “Our faculty are very close to the mathematics faculty,” she says. “For a long time we’ve maintained a strong pathway for computer science majors to pursue a minor in one of the mathematics fields. Things like that, they feed into each other.”  

Together, the STEM Quad and its evolving departments will greatly enhance TXST STEM research and education.