The College of Human Sciences (COHS) is one of the constituent units of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. It was founded in 1925 as the College of Home Economics as one of the four original colleges of Texas Tech.
History
When it opened in 1925, the then named School of Home Economics was one of the four original units of the university. Enrollment in 1925 included some 78 students and three faculty members. The college would remain named the School of Home Economics until 1993 when, after several years of deliberations, the current "College of Human Sciences" moniker would take effect. Margaret Watson Weeks was the initial Dean of the school from its founding in 1925 until 1953. It was under her leadership that the first (of four) additions to the original Home Economics Building (now Human Sciences Building) was completed in 1951. To date, most of the COHS faculty and classrooms are contained within the COHS Building and the nearby Human Sciences Cottage, a house-like structure that opened in 1928 as the Home Management House. The Cottage served as a practicum site for students in the college. In 1931, the first nursery school would be offered there during the summer months and year-round services would be added in 1938. Childcare services in the Cottage would continue until the Fall 2006 semester. Today these services continue as part of The Christine DeVitt and Helen DeVitt Jones Child Development Research Center.
The original building was designed by W.W. Watkin and Sanguinet & Staats’ principal architect Wyatt C. Hedrick. Four subsequent additions to the building have been made. These included the aforementioned 1951 addition designed in the Spanish plateresque style by Lubbock architectural firm Haynes & Kirby to the south of the original structure, a u-shaped addition to the east in 1973 designed by Architects III Joint Ventures, a multistory addition to the south designed by Tisdel & Adling (originally named the “Food Sciences Tower”) in 1977, and the current Christine DeVitt and Helen DeVitt Jones Child Development Research Center designed by SHW Group which opened in 2006.
Recognitions
The COHS was ranked the 6th college of family, consumer, and human sciences by College Factual in 2020. The COHS was the #1 such college in Texas in the same ranking. College Factual also listed the COHS as having the #2 Best Online Family, Consumer & Human Science School, the #3 Best such school for veterans, and the #5 best value school in the nation.
The COHS was ranked the #1 school in the nation for the number of doctoral degrees conferred to Hispanic Americans in its 2019 ranking. The college was ranked 7th in the nation for its conferral of doctorates to all racial/ethnic minorities in the same poll. The college was ranked 5th, 17th, and 20th in the nation in for its conferral of master's degrees to Hispanic Americans, persons of two or more races, and all minorities in 2019 as well.
The college has consistently ranked highly in Diverse Issues in Higher Education's Top 100 Producers of bachelor's degrees as well. In 2019, the college was in the top ten of institutions nationally in three undergraduate degree categories. The college ranked 6th in the nation for its Hispanic bachelor's degree conferrals, 8th in the nation for its “Total Minority” bachelor's degree conferrals and 9th in the nation for “Two or more races” degree conferrals. The college also ranked 14th, 17th, and 43rd in the nation for its bachelor's degree conferrals of Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans respectively.
The hospitality program in the Department of Hospitality and Retail Management was #1 in the nation for its conferral of doctoral degrees to African Americans by Diverse Issues in Higher Education in 2019 and for its conferral of doctorates to all minority students The program was ranked 12th in terms of its conferral of master's degrees to Hispanic students and 27th for all minority students in 2019 as well.
At the undergraduate level, the department ranked 23rd and 39th in the nation by Diverse Issues in Higher Education in terms of bachelor's degree conferrals of Hispanic and Asian Americans. In 2019, Wealth Magazine named the Department of Personal Financial Planning the #1 program in the nation. The ranking was based on a number of key performance indicators including the types of degrees granted, number of faculty, availability of capstone courses, number of graduates, and number of electives. The ranking was the first data-driven assessment of Personal Financial Planning programs.