The competition for students increased as the funds from the State Legislature became  more limited because of problems with the state’s economy. The A&I Continuing Education program that had started offering first academic extension

courses as early as 1926 when professors traveled to neighboring communities to offer workshops, seminars and regular curriculum was increasingly limited as  junior colleges began offering classes. The State Legislature authorized the official creation of the University of South Texas System and Corpus

Christians agitated even harder to change their two year upper level campus into a four year institution. As early as 1917 the people of Corpus Christi had wanted a school in their city. At that time the people of the Valley opposed putting the school there and compromised by putting it in Kingsville. As a result, the Corpus Christi community worked hard  at creating a public perception of the Kingsville campus that was detrimental to growth. Documents in the University Archives continuously mention the ever present need and struggle to receive fair coverage for the activities on this campus in the Corpus Christi news.

     As the concerns of the school grew due to declining enrollment and difficulty with retention the faculty was increasingly demoralized and in the years between 1972 and 1989 the little school struggled with rapidly changing administrators, a constantly changing curriculum, a troublesome economy, and a student body that was nontraditional and thus unlike anything in the past.  Too many were unprepared for the changes in attitudes and behavior of the new students and the school reflected the turmoil. A new president was in place at the Kingsville school on the average of

develop more programs and recruit new and better students.  The Engineering program was one that the State Legislature had specifically told the College to work at developing when the legislation creating Texas College of Arts and Industries in 1929. By 1937 Dr. Frank Dotterweich had been hired to build a program that became the only fully accredited Natural Gas curriculum in the country during some periods.      

     1968-1988 continued