Proposed legislation seeks to create UNT-Dallas

If it passes, new legislation proposed by state Sen. Royce West and state Rep. Jesse Jones will change the state's definition of the University of North Texas System by legally establishing a University of North Texas at Dallas.

The legislation will provide UNT with the authority and time to thoroughly plan the establishment of the first four-year public institution in the city of Dallas during the next decade.

The idea continues that UNT-Dallas will be located in the southern sector of the city, where it will serve southern Dallas and northern Ellis County residents.

"If these bills pass, they will send a signal to the young students now in middle school in southern Dallas and northern Ellis counties that they will have access to a quality public university close to home when they are ready to pursue their college degrees," says Alfred F. Hurley, chancellor of the UNT System.

Current operations of the UNT System Center at Dallas, which is an extension of UNT-Denton, will not be affected by the new legislation.

This spring, the System Center at Dallas began its third long semester with 574 students enrolled in 20 different academic programs. Enrollment projections show that 750 students will be taking classes in Dallas in the 2001 fall semester. And substantial increases in enrollment are expected to continue until enrollment reaches 5,000.

It is UNT's goal to reach an enrollment of 5,000 students in Dallas in 2007, the same year that the first building on the future UNT-Dallas campus is projected to open. If that happens, students enrolled in the System Center will have the opportunity to enroll at UNT-Dallas.

The legislation creating UNT-Dallas has no funding requests attached. And, the UNT System is not seeking an appropriation for the new university at this time.

However, if the legislation passes, UNT officials will be asking for approval in this session of $30 million in tuition revenue bonds, with debt service to be provided by the Legislature in its 2003 session.

The bonds would be requested in this session since the current practice is to request tuition revenue bonds during alternate biennia. If the UNT System did not ask for the bonds during this session, UNT officials would have to wait until 2005, postponing completion of the first facility until after 2007.

BY KELLEY REESE kreese@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Pohl makes commitment to healing
• UNT System Center achieves $2.6 million goal
• TAMS student a finalist in science talent search
• Spring 2001enrollment up almost 2.7 percent
• Program designed to help reduce parent stress
• Several UNT departments settling into new homes
• UNT Psychology Clinic to offer counseling on overcoming negative feelings
• Novelist, essayist to speak at UNT March 1

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