Texas A&M-Fort Worth leaders envision campus as mothership for other colleges. Here’s how
May 26,2025
See full Fort Worth Report article by Shomial Ahmad here.
Texas A&M-Fort Worth leaders envision campus as mothership for other colleges. Here’s how
The urban high-rise campus of Texas A&M University-Fort Worth isn’t just another university in downtown Fort Worth. It’s a Texas A&M University System school.
Think of it as a mothership campus, rather than a flagship — it’s a place where the 11 universities and eight agencies in the Texas A&M System can potentially offer programs to students in an urban downtown near a thriving medical district.
Kim McCuistion, associate vice chancellor with the Texas A&M University System and director of Texas A&M-Fort Worth, has been overseeing the creation of the downtown campus. She recently stood on the cement floor of its first new building, where some of the glass windows to the high-rise building were already up.
“We want people to see what’s going on. We want them to see the research, the students that are engaged in learning to inspire others, and to see what’s happening,” said McCuistion, with views of the freeway, railway lines and downtown in the distance. “Really what’s happening on the inside (of the building) is what’s so important.”
What will happen in the building’s inside are programs in workforce development, research and technology, law and engineering. It will be a magnet for economic growth in North Texas near the city’s proposed downtown innovation district. Six state agencies in the Texas A&M system plan to have a physical presence on the campus.
Academic plans for the campus include programs offered by Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas A&M University School of Law and Tarleton State University.
Tarleton State University will occupy portions of the sixth, seventh and eighth floors of the Law and Education Building.
That building is expected to be complete next summer and begin offering classes in fall 2026.
“We want to grow our workforce and meet the needs of the workforce, while also wanting to ensure that we’re as collaborative as possible with our system partners at this particular site,” said Rachael Capua, the dean of Tarleton State University Fort Worth.
Eventually the Texas A&M downtown site will feature Tarleton programs in medical laboratory science, nursing and biotechnology, Capua said.
The second building for the Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus — the Research and Innovation Building — is currently in design. The building has not broken ground yet. Tarleton State University has approval to host a Biotechnology Institute there. Rupa Iyer, vice president of research, innovation and economic development at Tarleton State University, will spearhead that effort.
“It’s anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. And the way I look at spaces, it’s an open space to be shared,” said Iyer, talking about how the institute will take a cross-disciplinary approach in bringing sciences, engineering, technology and business in one area that is mostly lab space.
“It goes from discovery, research and development, manufacturing, commercialization and entrepreneurship,” she added.
Robert Ahdieh, the chief operating officer of Texas A&M-Fort Worth and the dean of the Texas A&M University School of Law, is helping direct the academic programs that are coming to the new Fort Worth campus.
At the system school, there will be programs in law, health sciences, performance, virtual production, business and several engineering programs.
“This is a system campus or a system site — an A&M system site. It’s not A&M College Station. It’s not Tarleton State. It’s not any single (site),” said Ahdieh. “We’re building this kind of innovation district, ultimately, but really it’s the content that’s going to flow into those buildings that really is going to be transformative.”
He thinks about the campus as a “platform” not just for the Texas A&M University System, but also a space for academics, industry and community partners to collaborate.
With students set to arrive in just over a year, Ahdieh’s vision is starting to become reality.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Location Mentioned: Texas A&M Fort Worth