is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and named for Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas.
The university campus has an urban setting and the core campus of LU is 299-plus acres. LU is organized into five undergraduate colleges, one graduate college and an honors college.
== History ==
Louis R. Pietzsch founded a public junior college in Beaumont's South Park area at the direction of the South Park School District. Lamar University started on September 17, 1923 as South Park Junior College, operating on the unused third floor of the new South Park High School. Pietzsch acted as the first president of the college. South Park Junior College became the first college in Texas to receive Texas Department of Education approval during the first year of operation and became fully accredited in 1925.
In 1932, the college administration, recognizing that the junior college was serving the region rather than just the community, renamed it Lamar College. It was named …
