While you're on or off campus, follow this guided route as it loops through residential and academic areas of campus.
Northrup Hall
Northrup Hall, the “front porch” of Trinity’s campus, has served as the administrative nexus of campus since the 1950s. Today, it is home to Admissions, the Registrar, Student Financial Services, the Departments of Health Care Administration and Modern Languages and Literatures, and the University’s primary administrative offices.
Coates Student Center
Located at the heart of campus, the Coates Student Center is a bustling hub of activity and life on campus.
Here, students can grab something to eat at the Commons Dining Hall, which features both fixed restaurants and a rotating food stand which brings in several popular restaurants each week.
With numerous meeting spaces and plenty of comfortable seating, many students choose to study or simply hang out with friends here. No wonder we call it the “living room of campus"!
It also houses the Center for Experiential Learning and Career Success, the bookstore, Counseling Services, the Office of Student Involvement, the Student Diversity and Inclusion Office, and the Dean of Students Office.
Coates Esplanade
The Coates Esplanade is an exterior space on the south side of the Coates Student Center where large events are held throughout the year, from the annual Student Involvement Fair to the Chocolate Festival.
In the center of the Esplanade stands a 16-foot-tall bronze sculpture. “Large Interior Form” is one of many sculptures by Henry Moore, an artist known for exploring the mystery of the link between the human form and the three-dimensional environment. Though the vague nature of the sculpture confuses some, it is officially known as an improvisational depiction of a woman’s femininity.
Lower campus can be reached from the Coates Esplanade by taking the main staircase south of the Coates Student Center (affectionately named “Cardiac Hill”) or by taking the elevator on the south end of the Coates Esplanade oval.
Residence Halls
At Trinity, students are housed together by academic year in the First-Year Area (located here), Sophomore College, and upper-division residence halls and apartments.
The First-Year Area is an exciting place for new students to get to know the rest of their entering class and adjust to campus life. Located on the east end of campus, it consists of a group of buildings clustered together so all first-year students can experience a vibrant and supportive community.
Trinity's Sophomore College addresses the specific developmental needs of sophomores while creating an exciting and fun living environment in the residence halls. Trinity is one of the few colleges in the nation to offer a sophomore initiative program with a residential component. Through programming and hall activities, Sophomore College supports students through the second year of their academic journey.
Juniors and seniors have multiple living options in which they are encouraged to take ownership of their own spaces and communities. Students may choose between suite-style living and private bedrooms in residence halls and apartment living in Trinity's City Vista Apartments, located on the north end of campus, across Hildebrand Avenue.
Mabee Dining Hall
Located in the first-year residential area, Mabee Dining Hall is the largest dining hall on campus. Featuring all-you-care-to-eat meals, Mabee is open daily, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the weekdays and brunch and dinner on the weekends.
Just inside Mabee Dining Hall is a Steak 'n Shake and the Provisions on Demand (P.O.D.) Market, the campus "corner store" for groceries, convenience needs, snacks, fresh produce, and prepared meals.
Bell Athletic Center
As the core of Trinity University's Athletic Complex, the Bell Athletic Center houses two performance gymnasiums, a recently renovated strength and conditioning performance center, a weight and cardio center, as well as racquetball courts, the Hixon Natatorium, and a dance studio. It is open every day of the week to students, faculty, and staff with a Trinity ID.
Trinity is a Division III athletic institution and has 18 varsity sports (9 men's teams and 9 women's teams).
Murchison Tower
One of the most iconic structures at Trinity, Murchison Tower is the geographic centerpiece of Trinity’s campus. At 166 feet tall, the top of the tower is the second-highest point in all of San Antonio (the highest point is the top of downtown San Antonio’s Tower of the Americas, also designed by O’Neil Ford.)
Murchison Tower bookends the student experience at Trinity; students climb the tower twice, once before their very first day of class and again the week of their commencement, where they are greeted at the top by Trinity’s president. When climbing the tower before graduation, students can make a class gift to sign a brick and leave their mark on Trinity’s campus.
Miller Fountain
Miller Fountain is one of the most iconic features of Trinity’s campus. It was completed in 1966 and relocated to its current location on the west side of Northrup Hall in 2001 as a central gathering area. A few traditions surrounding the fountain are the Birthday Dunk and Fraternity & Sorority Life Bid Day. The Birthday Dunk occurs on each student’s birthday, when they are escorted to the fountain by their friends and encouraged to hop in! On Bid Day, new and old members of Fraternity & Sorority Life gather around the fountain to celebrate as new members accept their bids to join the respective groups.
Marrs McLean Hall
Marrs McLean Hall is home to the physics and astronomy, geosciences, and mathematics departments, as well as a hub for studying and discovery across the disciplines.
The building boasts a telescope on its roof that students of all majors can use to explore the night sky, as well as a replica of a saber-toothed tiger fossil—maybe of one of our tiger mascot's ancestors! Next to the fossil is a large chunk of the Diablo Canyon Meteorite that created the Meteor Crater in Arizona, last displayed at NASA in Houston. Additional fossil, mineral, and rock samples are on display in the hallway, around the corner.
Center for the Sciences and Innovation
Home to five academic departments—biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering science, and psychology—the McNair Scholars Program, and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for the Sciences and Innovation (CSI) is a campus hub for collaborative learning for all students at Trinity. This five-story science and engineering complex includes a rooftop observatory, a living “green” roof and rooftop greenhouse, and an open-air innovation and design studio, where students of all majors can operate heavy-duty laser cutters, 3D printers, lathes, and more.
The building has been certified as a LEED Gold facility and incorporates several sustainability measures, including a landscaped bioswale that captures and filters rainwater. All of the wood benches and table tops in the building came from the trees removed during construction.
Year-round, there is world-class research being performed in CSI, which provides our undergraduates with first-hand research experience as well as opportunities to become published and present at premier conferences in their respective fields of study.
Chapman-Halsell-Dicke Complex
The freshly renovated Chapman-Halsell-Dicke Complex is an academically diverse set of buildings designed to foster hands-on learning and offer student-centered spaces.
Chapman Hall is home to the Michael Neidorff School of Business and the Department of Economics. It houses a 182-seat auditorium as well as the Great Hall, a collaborative space for students, visitors, and events, and one of the most historically significant interior spaces on campus.
The Ewing Halsell Center housed the University’s first computer, an IBM 360 model 44. Today, the Halsell Center continues to testify to Trinity’s dedication to providing students with state-of-the-art resources. It is the new home of the classical studies, history, and philosophy departments and contains numerous collaborative study spaces and classrooms.
Dicke Hall, completed Fall 2022, is Trinity’s new home for the humanities and houses the Humanities Collective as well as the English and religion departments.
Coates Library
Built in 1979, Coates Library is one of the primary study locations for students at Trinity. With four floors and nearly 1 million research volumes, Coates Library is home to a wide variety of resources for student success. It even has a Starbucks!
The library also houses the Collaborative for Learning and Teaching, the Tiger Learning Commons, Academic Advising, the Writing Center, Trinity’s Special Collections and Archives, the Digital Print Center, and the Study Abroad office. Around 40% of our students study abroad in more than 70 countries and on 6 continents. Students can go for a summer, a semester, or a year-long excursion.
One of the most iconic aspects of the library is the large free-standing photo montage mural that wraps around the staircase on the third floor. “Man’s Evolving Images: In Printing and Writing” merges 800 images and characters from 5,000 languages to create a unique tribute to the evolution of art and is the largest free-standing photo montage in the world.
Laurie Auditorium & Richardson Communications Center
Laurie Auditorium is the largest venue on campus and seats up to 2,800. It is the site of commencements, convocations, a number of student talent shows and concerts, and Trinity’s Distinguished Lecture Series. Over 70 guest lecturers and artists are brought to campus each year and have included Woodward and Bernstein, Jane Goodall, Ph.D., Condoleezza Rice, and Theresa May.
Connected to Laurie Auditorium is the Richardson Communications Center (RCC), which houses the Department of Communication as well as student-run media operations. In the RCC, students have access to cutting-edge media facilities, including high-definition digital radio and television stations and state-of-the-art workstations for design, journalism, and gaming. Students get hands-on experience at the student-run TigerTV television station and at KRTU, the University’s on-campus radio station specializing in diverse, locally curated music programming that showcases regional musicians.
Magic Stones
Sculpted by internationally-renowned Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth, “A Conversation with Magic Stones” is a cluster of metallic shapes near the Center for the Sciences and Innovation and Coates Library. The sculpture provides a gathering place for students to study and converse.
Over the years, students have embraced the sculpture as an integral part of the Trinity experience. It is purported to have mystical grade-boosting powers. During finals, students flock to the magic stones, books and coffee in hand, to get a little extra good luck on their exams.
Ruth Taylor Fine Arts Center
The Ruth Taylor Fine Arts Center is composed of three buildings: the Jim and Janet Dicke Art Building, the Campbell and Eloise Smith Music Building, and the Ruth Taylor Theater Building. Participation in the arts is open to all Trinity students, regardless of major. In fact, 25% of Trinity students participate in the performing arts.
In the Dicke Art Building, the first floor houses work studios that open onto a patio where student and faculty work is displayed. The second floor is home to photography and digital studios, including a digital imaging lab. Traditional studios, such as the printmaking and paper arts studios, are located on the third floor.
The Smith Music Building features a number of faculty offices, classrooms, state-of-the-art practice studios, a recital hall, and a student lounge. Trinity is one of a small number of all-Steinway campuses and is home to 43 Steinway pianos available for student and faculty use.
The Ruth Taylor Theater Building hosts all theatrical performances in its three different theaters—the Stieren, Attic, and Cafe theaters. It is also home to our costume design studio and production shop.