University of North Texas at Dallas
Encyclopedia
The University of North Texas at Dallas began in 2000 as a Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 extension of the University of North Texas
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas is a public institution of higher education and research in Denton. Founded in 1890, UNT is part of the University of North Texas System. As of the fall of 2010, the University of North Texas, Denton campus, had a certified enrollment of 36,067...

, offering upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in fields such as education, business, criminal justice, applied arts and sciences, computer science, information technology and mathematics.

Enrollment on the UNT Dallas Campus has grown at an average annual rate of 14 percent per year and reached the full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...

 of 1,000 students during the spring semester of 2009. That figure, 1,000 FTE, had to be met under the terms of the legislation that created the school before it could separate from UNT. In April 2009, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board certified this enrollment and granted UNT Dallas status as an independent general academic institution. Now, the freestanding school is known as the University of North Texas at Dallas, the first public university within Dallas city limits. Freshmen and sophomores are being admitted for the first time in the Fall of 2010. In the summer of 2009, construction began on the second building on the school's 264 acres (1.1 km²) campus near the intersection of I-20 and I-35E.

Enrollment at the UNT Dallas Campus is certified by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is an agency of the Texas state government that oversees all public post-secondary education in Texas. It is headquartered at 1200 East Anderson Lane in Austin....

.

History and development

State Sen. Royce West
Royce West
Royce Barry West is a Democratic African American member of the Texas Senate representing the Dallas-based 23rd District.-2004:-2002:-References:Royce Barry West...

 suggested a feasibility study regarding the creation of a state university in southern Dallas County
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

 during the 75th Texas Legislature
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...

 in 1997 (this area of Dallas County is predominantly African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 and served only by the private Paul Quinn College
Paul Quinn College
Paul Quinn College is a private, historically black college located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas . Paul Quinn College holds the distinction as the oldest historically black college in the country west of the Mississippi River...

). The campus was launched at a temporary location in the spring 2000 semester with an enrollment of 204 students, or a full-time equivalent enrollment of 55.

The Dallas City Council approved a resolution in June 2001 directing its city manager to secure up to $3 million by January 2002 to buy about 200 acre (0.809372 km²) in southern Dallas' I-20
Interstate 20
Interstate 20 is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I‑20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...

 corridor for the future UNT Dallas campus. Private donations raised the size of the property for the new university campus to 264 acres (1.1 km²).

A 2001 bill passed by the Texas Legislature and signed into law by Governor Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...

authorized the UNT System to establish UNT Dallas once enrollment at the UNT Dallas Campus reaches 2,500. Another bill passed into law in 2003 changed the requirement, allowing work to begin on UNT Dallas once the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board certifies enrollment of the equivalent of 1,000 full-time students for one semester; it also allowed the system to issue bonds for the development of the current Dallas Campus.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the first building on the future campus took place in October 2005. The first 76000 square feet (7,060.6 m²), permanent building on the UNT Dallas Campus site was occupied in January 2007. The building was made possible by a state tuition revenue bond (TRB) initiative of $25.5 million. Under legislation signed by Gov. Rick Perry in May 2009, the state released previously authorized TRBs to construct the second building on the campus of UNT Dallas.

In March 2008, UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson promoted the UNT Dallas Campus' chief executive officer, John Ellis Price, to the position of vice chancellor. Price was later named "president designate" of the school by the UNT System Board of Regents.

External links

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