History of Louisiana Tech University

The History of Louisiana Tech University began when the Industrial Institute and College of Louisiana was founded in Ruston, Louisiana in 1894. The institute was founded to develop an industrial economy in the state of Louisiana. Four years later, the school was renamed the Louisiana Industrial Institute when Louisiana adopted the Constitution of 1898. When the Constitution of 1921 was passed, the school changed its name again to Louisiana Polytechnic Institute to reflect the school's evolution from a trade school into a larger and broader technical institute. Although the university was informally called Louisiana Tech for about five decades after the 1921 name change, it was not until 1970 when Louisiana Polytechnic Institute officially changed its name to Louisiana Tech University. Over the course of its history, the school grew from a small industrial institute with one building to a university with five colleges and an enrollment of around 11,800 students.