Sul Ross State University is a public university in Alpine, Texas. The main campus is the primary institution of higher education serving the nineteen-county Big Bend region of far West Texas. Branch campuses, branded as Rio Grande College, are located in Del Rio, Uvalde, Eagle Pass, and Castroville. Named for former Texas governor and Civil War Confederate general Lawrence Sullivan Ross, the institution was founded in 1917 as Sul Ross Normal College and was made a university in 1969.