By David DeKunder

Dr. Bill Bush has worn many hats during his time at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, playing a key role in the University’s development from its beginnings when it held classes at an old elementary school to a sprawling campus of nearly 8,000 students.

Bush came on board at A&M-San Antonio in 2008, becoming the first tenured track professor hired in the History Department. At that time, the University was known as Texas A&M System Center-San Antonio and housed at the former Olivares Elementary School on the South Side. While Bush said it was exciting to get in on the ground floor of a new university, it also presented plenty of challenges.

“We didn’t have a lot of resources, and we certainly didn’t have a lot of space,” Bush said. “Creating a university culture when the physical space where you operate is an elementary school is challenging. We didn’t have offices. We had cubicles in shared spaces. There was not a lot of privacy. You couldn’t talk privately to students. We had to get very resourceful with space, so we turned closets into offices.”

Despite the challenges of working at a new startup university, Bush was successful in developing the History program, hiring faculty, recruiting students and developing course rotations while still doing research and teaching a high load of courses.

Bush rose through the ranks quickly at A&M-San Antonio. In his second year at the University, he became chair of the Arts and Sciences Department. He also served as chair of the Communication, History, and Philosophy Department and chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department.

In 2015, A&M-San Antonio President Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson appointed Bush to head a task force to establish an honors program for students, serving on the committee that read student applications for the program. Inspired by those applications, Bush decided to apply to become the first director of the Honors Program. The program began in 2022 with Bush at the helm.

With Bush as director, the Honors Program has grown to 75 students. Currently open to incoming freshmen and transfer students, the program will expand in the fall to include students with two years left at A&M-San Antonio.

In addition, he is still a professor in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Geography, where he teaches two History courses.

Reflecting on his 15 years at A&M-San Antonio, Bush said, “It’s been exciting and challenging and incredibly educational in ways I wouldn’t have gotten at a traditional university. You can definitely see you are making a difference in people’s lives.”