Dear Alum,

Earlier this month, our university was proud to announce that the Texas State Historical Association chose to relocate to UNT after spending the last 110 years at the University of Texas at Austin. UNT has long recognized the importance of Texas history and we have built a strong foundation of faculty and library resources that will support the mission of the association, which is Texas' oldest such association and considered in academic circles the nation's most dynamic regional history organization.

UNT's Department of History has the strongest faculty research focus on Texas history at any university in the state, which can be measured by the more than 25 books that faculty members have written or edited about this great state. This will be a great partnership as the association and UNT faculty work together to preserve Texas' heritage and further the appreciation, understanding and teaching of Texas' unique history.

Also, our UNT Press, with Texas history as one of its core areas, will provide new publishing opportunities for the association.

I am pleased the association's board recognized the opportunities for the organization to expand its reach by joining forces with UNT. Our new partnership with the association is one of many that have been and will be established to further our research initiatives, help enrich our already stellar academic programs and bring new state, national and international recognition to UNT.

With green pride,
Gretchen M. Bataille
President

Features

Moving Forward: UNT continues mission to further diversity
Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine recently recognized UNT as a publishers pick because of the work we do here to ensure Hispanic students have successful academic careers. With a strong commitment to diversity, our university has worked hard to establish programs for the recruitment and retention of Hispanic students. This year, for example, UNT has participated in 600 recruitment programs and six national Hispanic college fairs in the Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio areas. In addition, Gilda Garcia, vice president for institutional equity and diversity, is beginning a series of regular meetings called Café Diversity in which campus groups can have conversations exploring issues of inclusion, diversity, equity and access for faculty, staff and students.

Bill Buckles

Chinese professor to research, lecture at UNT
Demonstrating UNT's ongoing commitment to globalization and collaboration, Liangmei Hu, an associate professor from the Hefei University of Technology in China, will spend 2008 researching and lecturing in UNT's College of Engineering. She will conduct a variety of research projects and serve as a guest lecturer in both undergraduate and graduate computer science and engineering classes. Dr. Hu, whose areas of specialty include image processing and computer vision, will be working with Bill Buckles, professor of computer science and engineering, and Xiaohui Yuan, assistant professor of computer science and engineering. The professors will collaborate on a project to construct a digital terrain model combining LiDAR (light detection and ranging - an optical remote sensing technology) and infrared information.

Professor creates podcasts for textbook
Priscilla Connors, an associate professor in UNT's School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management, and a group of UNT theatre alumni are creating podcasts for students enrolled in Principles of Nutrition. The class, which fulfills a wellness requirement, is a distributed learning course in which students and teachers rely primarily on Internet delivery and other indirect communication instead of a traditional classroom setting. Available to students this semester, the podcasts allow them to listen to the class lectures while sitting in their pajamas in their residence hall or apartment. The podcasts also include contents of the course's online textbook that Dr. Connors, a registered dietician, wrote and updates annually.

CALL center promotes continuing education
Earlier this month, UNT founded the Center for Achievement and Lifelong Learning, or CALL. The center will coordinate all continuing education and outreach activities at UNT, including test preparation classes, career training, extension credit courses and events. CALL will bring together the existing Center for Continuing Education and Conference Management and the Professional Development Institute, which will remain separate entities under the new center. Ken Robertson, assistant vice president for lifelong learning, will oversee CALL. I hope you will take advantage of our upcoming classes and events as you continue growing academically and professionally.

Faculty Focus: Edward Dzialowski
Edward Dzialowski, assistant professor of biological sciences, is using chicken embryos as a model to study the development of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. He and others in the UNT Developmental Physiology and Genetics Research Group are learning how the cardiovascular system develops and transitions from a fetal circulation pattern to a neonatal circulation pattern. He also is interested in examining how the developing cardiovascular system responds to environmental stressors such as a lack of oxygen. Dr. Dzialowski does an outstanding job at providing hands-on research and learning opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students.

UNT Traditions: Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.
Each year, the UNT community celebrates the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In his honor, sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha sponsored a student-organized rally Jan. 21, where I was honored to serve as a speaker. In addition, the Division of Institutional Equity and Diversity displayed videos, paintings, photographs and literature about Dr. King's life in the University Union's One O'Clock Lounge. This marks the continuation of a proud tradition at UNT, which has been honored to host members of the King family. In February 2005, Dr. King's wife, the late Coretta Scott King, spoke on campus and was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. And his daughter, the late Yolanda King, followed in February 2006.

Featured Link: UNTeCampus
As we begin a new year and make resolutions to improve our lives, one opportunity I would like to remind you of is our UNTeCampus, which can provide you with convenient and flexible classes to reach career and personal goals. UNT is the largest provider of online credit courses among Texas public universities. Through our UNTeCampus, we offer 32 undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificates, many of which can be obtained 100 percent online. From laptops at the local coffee shop or their home computers, UNTeCampus students participate in class discussions and learn from the same high-quality professors that they would were they coming to campus for class.

Exes encourage you to join, start chapters
Rob McKinney has been named the new director of chapter development and events for the North Texas Exes. McKinney, a 2003 UNT graduate, earned a bachelor of business administration degree in marketing. Since 2004, McKinney has served as event coordinator for the UNT Gateway Center. For those interested in volunteering with a North Texas Exes chapter or alumni network, please contact Rob at rmckinney@unt.edu or 940-565-3162. For more information about the Exes, visit www.ntexes.org.