Texas A&M University at Galveston is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and Friday, part of that celebration included a special ceremony on the College Station campus.
When A&M launched what was then called The Texas Maritime Academy 50 years ago, the first 23 cadets actually started classes at the historic YMCA Building on the College Station campus, where Friday's ceremony was held.
The Maritime Academy is now part of Texas A&M at Galveston, where the training ship, the General Rudder, is based.
A&M President R. Bowen Loftin, who used to be president of TAMU-Galveston, talked to News 3 about the significance of the Galveston campus.
Loftin said, "The Maritime Academy was the precursor for what we now call Texas A&M University-Galveston, which is a more comprehensive organization. We've got 2,000 students down there and about 400 faculty and staff, and the beauty of the place was that as the CEO, I could get my arms around it I could actually know everybody. I can't do that here with 60,000."
The Texas Maritime Academy part of TAMU-Galveston now enrolls about 447 cadets who are studying for careers in marine transportation, marine engineering, and Navy Reserve Officer training.
