Merging with the University of San Antonio

Between the Great Depression and World War II, Trinity’s 1942 move to San Antonio didn’t have the best timing—but San Antonio officials knew that helping the beleaguered university would be an investment for the Alamo City.

The depression of the 1930s wreaked havoc on the cotton-dependent town of Waxahachie. Plunging enrollments forced Trinity to shrink, eventually leading the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities to withdraw Trinity’s accreditation and place it on probation. By 1940, University officials knew that Trinity would have to move or close.

Trinity nearly moved to Sherman to merge with Austin College, another small Presbyterian school. Trinity Presidents Frank Wear and Everett Tucker favored San Antonio instead, and began working with Arthur V. Boand, a San Antonio clergyman, to find support among local donors to merge with a small, struggling Methodist school called the University of San Antonio.

Although some feared that religious differences would cause friction, Trinity’s Presbyterian roots became a selling point to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. Some of the old north Texas Protestants saw San Antonio as a Catholic stronghold that would clash with Trinity’s traditional Protestantism. Instead, noting that San Antonio had three Catholic colleges, Boand successfully convinced the Chamber of Commerce that bringing Trinity would offer a chance to include a strong Protestant university in the city.

In December 1941, the board of directors met at the Gunter Hotel to discuss the move, just as President Roosevelt was urging Congress to declare war against Japan. Although these new uncertain wartime conditions made some reluctant to vote for the merger, San Antonians welcomed Trinity with open arms. Everett expressed thanks for the “kindly reception of our Catholic friends.” One editorial in the San Antonio Express-News claimed it was the city’s most important acquisition since Randolph Field and concluded, “Certainly it will become a force for building a greater San Antonio.”