News
Vice chancellor of UNT UNT Dallas: ‘the train has left the station’
DALLAS – On-site enrollment at the University of North Texas at Dallas spiked to a record headcount of 2,212 students for the fall 2008 semester, according to unofficial census figures taken on the semester’s 12th day of classes. That figure represents an 18 percent increase over the 12th class day headcount of 1,874 in fall 2007.
Most important for the campus is its increase in full-time equivalent (FTE) student enrollment. The campus reached 959 full-time equivalents, an 18 percent increase over the fall 2007 figure of 814.
Under Texas state law, UNT Dallas can become a free-standing, four-year university when student full-time equivalent enrollment reaches 1,000. Reaching that milestone would release additional state funding for further development of the campus, but university officials say the campus’ rapid growth means the money will be needed sooner.
John Ellis Price, vice chancellor of the UNT System and chief executive officer of the UNT UNT Dallas, said the upswing in enrollment illustrates the demand for a public university in Dallas. The increase also makes it clear that UNT Dallas will be opening in 2010, the target date approved by the UNT System Board of Regents last spring.
“The train has left the station,” Price said. “UNT Dallas is coming and it is coming in fall 2010. When you look at the challenges the campus has overcome to accomplish this achievement under the Texas Pathway Model, our progress is phenomenal.”
Price said the state’s Pathway Model was designed to halt the proliferation of rural universities, where slow and negative population growth could not sustain a university campus. The plan was implemented after several rural universities came into existence in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Several of the universities have struggled to reach enrollments higher than 2,000.
Last year, state universities in Texas grew at an average of only 1.5 percent (with five universities showing a decline in enrollment), according to figures provided by the Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).
In contrast, UNT Dallas operates in one of the fastest growing urban areas of the country. More than 5.6 million people live in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
The Dallas Independent School District alone will graduate more than 35,000 students within the next four years, providing thousands of potential college students. UNT Dallas is partnering with the district and Cedar Valley College to increase college readiness and college-going rates through the district’s Early College High School program at Nolan Estes Plaza.
According to the THECB’s latest Regional Plan for Higher Education, the Metroplex, Gulf Coast, and South Texas regions of the state, will account for almost 77 percent of Texas’ enrollment growth from 2003 through 2015.
Price said such figures add up to continued rapid growth for UNT Dallas and the future UNT Dallas.
“We’ve already shown that we are capable of an average growth rate of 16 percent annually, and I do not see that changing anytime soon. As long as the state and our donors continue to provide fiscal support to hire the faculty and staff we need, and help us build the facilities we need, the future will only grow brighter for UNT Dallas.”
“Considering that the state has demonstrated how serious it is about meeting the goals of its Closing the Gaps education plan and creating more citizens with college degrees, Texas would benefit from providing the resources necessary for us to succeed in our endeavors.”
“Our message to the state simply is, ‘Help us succeed.’ Give us the transitional funding necessary to hire additional faculty and staff and grow our physical plant. We’re so close, and judging by the success of UNT Dallas, nobody can deny we are going to make it.”
An Aug. 22 editorial in the Dallas Morning News said Texas legislators should begin funding the expansion of UNT Dallas because “the demand is certainly clear when you look at the numbers.”
“What Texas legislators and higher-education officials look for in chartering a new university is whether a demand exists for the college and whether the school can play a role. Since it started in 2000, the University of North Texas' UNT Dallas has succeeded on both fronts,” the editorial said.
The first permanent building on UNT Dallas site was occupied in January 2007. The building sits on 264 acres near the intersection of I-35E and I-20 on Houston School Road. Construction of that building was made possible by a state bond initiative of $25.5 million. UNT Dallas has requested a state appropriation for its second, 100,000-square-foot building, which will house classroom and laboratory space for its life sciences curriculum.
In addition to faculty who teach from the UNT flagship in Denton, the UNT Dallas has 35 faculty with plans to increase that number to 45 by the spring 2009 semester. The UNT UNT Dallas has requested transitional funding to hire an additional 43 faculty and 69 staff members for the opening of the university in 2010.
Until the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board verifies enrollment numbers and certifies them official later in the fall, all enrollment statistics are unofficial, 12th class day numbers.
The UNT UNT Dallas operates under the authority of the University of North Texas in Denton, the state’s fourth largest university, and is a component institution of the University of North Texas System. The Campus currently offers junior-, senior- and graduate-level courses leading to bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The Campus will become freestanding and open as UNT Dallas, the city’s first and only public university, by 2010.
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Gregory Tomlin
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