Dear Alum,

UNT received a joyous start to the holidays! The Mean Green once again won the Sun Belt Conference football title and a trip to the New Orleans Bowl. We played a great game against another outstanding team, Memphis, who won 27-17.

I'm proud of our conference champs, and you must be, too. We had an incredible turnout of North Texas fans. Thank you to all who supported our team in the stands at the Louisiana Superdome, on the edge of your seat watching ESPN2 or listening to The Mean Green Radio Network (100.7 FM).

The third consecutive Sun Belt title and bowl appearance — school records — brought to a close an impressive semester at North Texas, in which we had both academic and athletic achievements. UNT educated more than 31,000 students this fall — more students than ever before — and our faculty members continued to excel at teaching in classrooms, researching in labs and publishing in their fields.

Faculty mentors, rigorous academic programs, eager students and outstanding athletes. It's a great package, wrapped especially for the holidays, and also throughout the New Year.

Seasons Greeting's,
Norval

December 2003
STORIES BELOW 

Old fashioned caroling

Commencement reality show

Improving infrared sensors

Center for Parent Education

Behind the scenes with Dr. Phil

Jingle Bells and all that jazz
Here's some holiday fun. An a cappella quartet of faculty, staff and alumni form The Living Christmas Card. They recently were mentioned in our faculty and staff newsletter for their Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance. See the photo and caption, which links to their web site, and sample 24 traditional and contemporary jazz-flavored Yuletide carols.
http://www.unt.edu/inhouse/bulletinboard.htm

Dreams become reality
On Dec. 13 almost 2,000 individuals crossed our graduation stage, passing from student to alumnus with the toss of a tassel and a tight grip on a newly earned UNT degree. Kathleen Mason, president and CEO of Tuesday Morning Corp., was our featured speaker. Each commencement ceremony is broadcast live on NTTV or through the UNT web site, and the keynote speech is archived at the link below.
http://www.unt.edu/commencement/watch.htm

Seeing the invisible
Two UNT physics professors are working to increase the sensitivity and range of infrared materials used in detection devices. They also are striving to make the technology more affordable and accessible to consumers, medical centers and businesses. The result? Their research will help with the early detection of diseases and storm systems.
http://www.unt.edu/resource/02invisiblefeature.htm

Engaging parents in education
The UNT Center for Parent Education teaches future educators how to engage parents in their children's education. The center's web site is an interesting read for teachers and parents alike. You'll gain tips for reading aloud to a distracted toddler and find articles on teen-agers and sleeping, such as "Wake-up, Sleepy Teens!"
http://www.unt.edu/cpe/partnership/presource.htm

One-on-one with Dr. Phil
I've been at UNT a few years now, and one of my favorite pastimes is meeting North Texas alumni. Luckily, I'm not the only one who gets to meet you as part of my job. So do the writers for The North Texan magazine. Read here what it was like for the associate director of news and information to meet alumnus Dr. Phil in her essay "Hooray for Hollywood."
http://www.unt.edu/northtexan/philxtra.htm

Cool link: Hobbit habit
Are you a Lord of the Rings fan? UNT philosophy professor Eugene Hargrove is. He's devoted more than three decades to analyzing fellow philosopher and author J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy and how it's presented in books, artwork and movies. Hargrove is best known in Tolkien circles for his essay, "Who is Tom Bombadil?" Read it and other Middle Earth lore at his university web site (scroll down to third section).
http://www.phil.unt.edu/~hargrove

UNTrivia: How many students live on campus in UNT residence halls?

a. 3,921
b. 4,761
c. 5,364

Answer

Design your own university watch with Factory 121 by going to the North Texas Exes web site. Orders placed by Dec. 31 receive a 10 percent discount, and a percentage of all purchases support UNT scholarships and other Exes programs. For other important new developments with the North Texas Exes and ways to become more involved with the alumni association, please visit http://www.unt.edu/alumni.

Correction and update: The "What is small, is big" story in the November North Texas Insider mistakenly referred to the $3.1 million appropriation for the UNT Center for Advanced Research and Technology as originating in the Texas Legislature. The federal funding to further UNT's research in nanotechnology came from the U.S. Congress. Since the last newsletter, the UNT Research Park also was the site of a public hearing for U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess and Ralph Hall, members of the House Committee on Science. Researchers explained the importance of additional project funds for the emerging nanotechnology field, especially in the North Texas region.

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