The undergraduate program at the University of Texas has grown into the largest astronomy teaching program in the world, with some 7000 students per year (almost 20,000 credit hours). The department has 22.5 Ph.D.-level teaching faculty, about 45 graduate students, and about 40 pre-professional undergraduate majors. But most of the enrollment is in courses that satisfy the science requirements of students in liberal arts and non-technical majors. In 1985–86, 96.4 per cent of our undergraduate credit hours taught were in such classes. It is instructive to examine the historical reasons for our growth and its educational consequences, and to draw some conclusions from both for other programs.