UT San Antonio’s President Taylor Eighmy launched UTSA’s Campus Master Plan initiative in June 2018. The plan, dedicated to development and expansion efforts over the next decade, was approved in 2019. Professor Emeritus of Public Administration Heywood Sanders sat down with The Paisano to analyze the development of the project seven years after its approval.
“I think the simplest description of our current situation is that we’re not on track that the master plan laid out in 2019, and that it’s not quite clear if we will ever get to that kind of dimensions that were talked about then, particularly in a physical form,” Sanders stated.
Detailed within the master plan is an expanded Main Campus area size of 3.3 million square feet. Developments for research and academic places, pedestrian-oriented environment, housing and revenue expansion opportunities are named as principal goals of the project.
UT San Antonio aims to expand the four campuses’ square footage to accommodate 45,000 students for its future growth. Today, UT San Antonio has over 38,000 students enrolled.
Plans to expand the Downtown Campus are detailed in the master plan, with UT San Antonio planning to purchase $7.3 million worth of city land and $5.7 million of county land in 2018.
Sanders, who joined UT San Antonio in 2001, is most familiar with the Downtown Campus plan as it is of the most immediate importance to him.
“I seriously wonder if any of those things will actually be realized,” Sanders detailed. “In 2018, Dr. Eighmy imagined UTSA Downtown Campus in 10 years, 15,000 plus students, 1,000 plus faculty, 1,000 plus staff, four plus colleges, two new schools, two new institutes, distributed residential experience, comprehensive student experience, development catalyst for the Near West Side and a tractor for corporations.”
“Now, I haven’t seen the numbers on enrollment on the downtown campus of late, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near 15,000 students.”
Sanders explained that student activity at the Downtown Campus has had a “real reduction.” The idea of establishing a pedestrian bridge connecting the Downtown Campus to the West Side of San Antonio was covered by the San Antonio Express–News. Sanders discussed this proposed connection during his interview with The Paisano.
“There was part of the plan some discussion about efforts to better connect and link the campus developments along San Pedro Creek east of the highway to the original Downtown Campus footprint to the west,” Sanders explained. “That really has not occurred in much of any way. They’re remarkably isolated.”
Reflecting on the status of the current state of the Downtown Campus, Sanders explained how a lot of attention is needed for the academic spaces.
“I can go into classrooms and conference rooms there that have exactly the same chairs and tables that were there when those buildings opened,” Sanders detailed. “If we’re actually going to have a plan that’s meaningful, we need to step up a planning process that at the very least goes back and looks at what we’ve done and [what] we haven’t and what we might do now and provide some functional vision for the future.”
UT San Antonio released a New District Planning Report in October 2025, which featured a proposal to complete the development of San Pedro II during 2026.
