The A&M System has lost its sole Latina president. San José State, meanwhile, will gain its first.at A&M-San Antonio in January 2015, picking up the reins of a university that had been an independent institution only since 2009 — and was still more than a year away from having students enter as freshmen.
Leading a newly created institution comes with inherent challenges, but leading a newly created institution on San Antonio’s South Side carried a unique set of hurdles — and many of them are still there.almost from scratch“There’s no grocery stores near A&M-San Antonio, there are no food services that a student can walk to easily,” Teniente-Matson said, beginning a list of pressing needs.
Cynthia Teniente-Matson talks with Addy Moreno, an alum, at her farewell reception after her last formal event as president of A&M-San Antonio, a ribbon-cutting Thursday for the new College of Business/Library Hall building.“I talk to students who tell me, ‘It takes me two and a half hours and three buses to get to campus,’” Teniente-Matson said. “And those things hurt my heart.”
A&M-San Antonio had more than 7,300 students last fall, up slightly more than 4,500 from when Teniente-Matson took over. The university now offers 49 undergraduate andand houses three colleges — the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business and the College of Education and Human Development.