University of Houston–Downtown

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One Main Building

One Main Building as seen from the merger of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou

Commerce Street Building

The University of Houston–Downtown, often called UH–Downtown or UHD, is a four-year college in Houston, Texas. With an enrollment of about 11,000 students, UHD is the second-largest institution of the University of Houston System.

[edit] History

UHD was created in 1974 from South Texas Junior College (established 1967), a two-year college in downtown Houston which had been bought out by the University of Houston. (The demise of South Texas Junior College was based on the fact where the Houston Community College System evolved.) UHD has been a stand-alone university in the University of Houston System since the creation of that system in 1977, and has about 35 bachelor's degree programs and four master's degree programs (master's degree programs were established in Fall 2000 after the Texas Legislature granted UHD its first master's program).

[edit] Campus

The UHD campus is located in three buildings at the north end of Downtown Houston, next to the crossing of Interstate 10 and Main Street. One of the buildings in the complex is the former Merchants and Manufacturers Building—a historical landmark.

UHD has a diverse campus—roughly one-third Hispanic, one-quarter African American, one-quarter white, and the remainder are Asian American, Native American, and foreign nationals. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has designated UHD as a "Hispanic Serving Institution", in recognition of the large number of Hispanic students enrolled at UHD.

The president of UHD since 1992 has been Max Castillo.

UHD is served by a METRORail station, the University of Houston–Downtown Station—the rail station is the northern terminus of the METRORail Red line.

UHD does not have an intercollegiate sports program; it has a mascot: the Gator (also known as the Ed-U-Gator).

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[edit] External links

• University of Houston–Downtown