In 1895, seventy-five students enrolled at Arlington College, an
elementary and secondary institution located on the North Texas
prairies. Over the next 120 years, the school changed into a military
school, a vocational college, a two-year college in the Texas A&M
System, and finally, a full-fledged university with more than 34,000
students from across the globe. Throughout its history, UT Arlington has
benefitted from strong leadership and strong community commitment to
education. During the low-enrollment period of the Great Depression,
Dean E.E. Davis went into the cornfields of East Texas to recruit
students. In World War II, art professor Howard Joyner switched from
teaching fine art to teaching the art of camouflage painting. The
turbulent 1960s saw students clashing over the school's rebel flag
theme, the resolution of which paved the way for the university to
become one of the most diverse in the nation today.