Lamar State
College-Port Arthur is a two-year, state supported
institution and is a member of the Texas State University
System. Located in Port Arthur, an industrial and cultural
center of Southeast Texas, the institution offers freshman
and sophomore level work in numerous academic and
technical/vocational fields. The campus is situated between
the 1000 and 1800 blocks of Procter Street and Lakeshore
Drive and occupies more than forty acres of land.
The Lamar State
College-Port Arthur institution serves the metropolitan area
known as the Golden Triangle, which includes the cities of
Beaumont, Orange, Port Arthur, Vidor, Port Neches,
Nederland, Groves, Bridge City, and Sabine Pass. All lie
within twenty-five miles of Port Arthur and form the heart
of the upper Texas Gulf Coast with a population of
approximately 350,000 people.
John W. Gates of
New York City and Port Arthur, one of the founders of
Texaco, founded Port Arthur Business College in 1909. The
school was organized to train radio operators for the
maritime industry which was flourishing because of the
prominence of the newly constructed oil refineries.
Port Arthur
Business College became Port Arthur Collegiate Institute in
1911., when the school was presented to the Board of
Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, a
forerunner of the present United Methodist Temple. The
church operated the growing campus until 1918, when it was
turned over to a non-profit Texas corporation. This
corporation had no capital stock and was overseen by a
self-perpetuating board of trustees. The name of the school
was changed back to Port Arthur Business College and finally,
in 1932, to Port Arthur College.
On July 31,
1974, another milestone in the history of the school was
reached. W. Sam Monroe, President of Port Arthur College and
a Lamar University Regent, presented his fellow members of
the Lamar Board a resolution seeking merger of Port Arthur
College into Lamar University of Beaumont. The twenty-one
trustees of the school agreed that the merger would be in
the best interest of both institutions and their
constituencies. Since the merger in 1975, enrollment in Port
Arthur has increased from 151 students to more than 3,000.
The curriculum includes over fifty areas of study.
The Texas
Legislature approved Lamar University as a member of the
State University System in 1995. This action was signed into
law in June 1999, changing the name of the institution to
Lamar State College-Port Arthur.
Lamar State
College-Port Arthur is an open-access, comprehensive public two-year college with quality instruction leading to
Associate degrees and a variety of certificates. The college
provides affordable, quality educational opportunities to
residents in Southeast Texas.
The Commission
on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and
Schools to award Associate degrees accredits Lamar State
College-Port Arthur. It is approved by the Texas Education
Agency for the training of veterans under all
classifications. A student at LSC-PA can complete two full
years of course work and satisfy the majority of the general
education requirements for a bachelor's degree.
For additional
information about Lamar State College-Port Arthur, visit
their web
page.
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