Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approves UNT College of Engineering

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board voted unanimously April 18 to authorize the establishment of a college of engineering at UNT.

The first phase of UNT's plans calls for launching the new engineering college by transferring three departments from the College of Arts and Sciences.

UNT President Norval Pohl identified the Department of Engineering Technology, the Department of Computer Science (with a THECB-approved name change to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering) and the Department of Materials Science (with an approved name change to the Department of Material Science and Engineering) as the departments that will form the foundation of the UNT College of Engineering.

When it begins operations, the UNT College of Engineering will administer two new degrees along with existing degrees in the transferred and renamed departments. The new degrees will be a bachelor of science and a master of science in computer engineering. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology must accredit these new degrees by 2009.

According to Pohl, UNT's long-range goal is to develop a comprehensive college of engineering. "With this authorization from the coordinating board, we are now poised to assist the state in widening and deepening the pool of workers in science, engineering and technology fields. Our new college of engineering will provide valuable research and developmental expertise to the Texas high-technology industries, and particularly to firms located in the Metroplex, the largest population center in Texas," he says.

Current plans are to admit the first UNT College of Engineering students in the 2003— 04 academic year. UNT is expecting to have 650 engineering students by 2007 and 1,250 engineering students by 2010.

The engineering school will occupy approximately 180,000 square feet of the 550,000 square feet available in the the former Texas Instruments property located four miles from the main Denton campus, near the juncture of U.S. Highway 77 and Loop 288, just east of I-35.

Pohl estimates that renovation costs will be around $17 million and that laboratory equipment costs will be nearly $5 million.

In addition, the university immediately will begin seeking to recruit a dean for the new school.

UNT's long-term planning calls for developing complimentary new programs in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.

BY RODDY WOLPER rwolper@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT VP for administrative affairs to retire
• Faculty, staff recognized at Honors Day celebration
• UNT study says gaps in baseball players' salaries may lead to losing seasons
• Spring commencement ceremonies May 11
• UNT professor on a 3-D mission
• Summer National Youth Sports Program at UNT
• UNT entrepreneurship student wins prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship
• UNT leads Texas in number of students winning Goldwater Scholarships

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