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.
