The university quickly went on lockdown after the shooting in a carpark at the University Courtyard Apartments, a university-owned complex on the edge of the campus.
The incident was the third shooting on or near the campus in less than a week, though it's unclear whether they are related. The latest shootings came the same day as a fatal shooting at Northern Arizona University, and about a week after eight students and a teacher were fatally shot at a community college in Oregon.
"Like President Obama says, this is getting to be too regular," Texas Southern President John Rudley said.
Rudley said the Texas Southern student who was killed was in his first year. The second victim was shot twice and is hospitalised in stable condition.
Police were searching for a third man and trying to determine a motive in the shooting.
The fatal shooting came just hours after another shooting near the same student-housing complex injured one person.
The university said it would increase police on campus. On Tuesday, university police said a shooting after a performance poetry competition on campus injured another man.
"My main concern is what they're going to do now," Daijsa Fowls, a 19-year-old pharmacy student from Houston, said as she stood outside the housing complex yesterday. "I'm supposed to be moving on campus and it shakes me up."
Fowls had a 3-year-old son, and said she wouldn't feel safe walking with him on campus. She said she planned to move into one of the nearby housing units but is now considering transferring to another school. "A bullet has no name," she said. "It could hit anybody."
Brittney Solomon, a 19-year-old psychology student from Houston, said she also planned to move to campus.
"I'm most definitely concerned," she said. "It's really nerve-racking feeling that a person here could have a gun."
