The University of North Texas is the flagship of the University of North Texas System, which includes the University of North Texas Dallas Campus and the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. UNT is the leading university of the Dallas – Fort Worth region and, with more than 31,000 students from every state in the nation and more than 100 other countries, UNT is the fourth largest university in Texas.
A comprehensive, state-assisted, co-educational institution, UNT offers a wide variety of undergrad-uate, master’s and doctoral degree programs. About 22 percent of UNT’s student body is made up of graduate students, a greater percentage than the top five public universities in Texas.
Designated as a doctoral/research university-extensive by the Carnegie Foundation, UNT ranks in the top 4 percent of U.S. colleges and universities. UNT offers far more graduate degree choices than any other university in the Dallas – Fort Worth region and has been named one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for nine consecutive years.
UNT is classified as one of seven emerging research universities in Texas by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The classification is based on UNT’s range of academic programs and its measures in teaching, service, and research, particularly its commitment to graduate education through the doctoral level.
The university is committed to academic excellence, to student success and to serving as an intellectual resource for the community, state and nation.
Joshua C. Chilton, UNT’s first president, leased facilities above a hardware store on Denton’s square to establish a teacher training institute in 1890. His charge to the faculty at its first assembly remains an important part of UNT’s value system:
“It will be our aim to become leaders in the education of the young men and women of Texas, fitting them to creditably fill the most important positions in business and professional circles. We desire the cooperation of all who believe in higher education and who want to see our state in the very front of intellectual as well as material progress.”
The institute was established as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute. Four years later, and five more times in the century to follow, the name was modified to reflect the institution’s growth and change.
Incoming students choose UNT for the quality of its programs, many of which are nationally ranked. More degree programs at UNT are nationally accredited than at any other university in the Dallas – Fort Worth region (see list of accrediting organizations following the index). UNT “firsts” through the years include:
In 1987, the Select Committee on Higher Education named UNT as one of five comprehensive research and graduate institutions in Texas. UNT is recognized as a leader in the performance of many public services, assisting in the economic diversification of the Dallas – Fort Worth region, which is home to more than 5.4 million people. In 1992, UNT was elected to full membership in the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.
Since its founding in 1890, UNT has awarded more than 181,780 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. It has offered master’s degrees since 1935 and doctoral degrees since 1950. As of September 2004, there were approximately 144,000 active alumni, with more than 83,000 in the Dallas – Fort Worth region.
The university has been led by 13 presidents:
From 1981 until 2000, the president also carried the responsibilities and title of Chancellor of the University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. Senate Bill 751 of the 76th Texas Legislature provided for the establishment of the University of North Texas System, and in July 1999, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board confirmed formal system status for UNT, including the Denton campus, UNTHSC in Fort Worth and the UNT Dallas Campus (UNT System Center at Dallas). In October 2000, the positions of president and chancellor were officially separated.
The university has had three chancellors:
On August 24, 2002, the UNT Board of Regents named Alfred F. Hurley Chancellor Emeritus of the UNT System and President Emeritus of the university.
When Robert B. Toulouse, who served as graduate dean from 1954 to 1982 and provost until 1990, retired, the board of regents renamed the graduate school the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies.
His contributions to graduate education made the honor richly deserved. During Toulouse’s tenure as graduate dean, almost every graduate program currently authorized at UNT was established. His leadership role in establishing these programs helped to make UNT the most comprehensive graduate institution in the region and one of the three largest graduate institutions in the state.
In addition, graduate student enrollment grew from approximately 300 students to more than 5,500, which then represented almost a third of UNT’s total enrollment. Toulouse also provided the leadership in establishing the Federation of North Texas Area Universities in 1968.
Toulouse’s efforts also had an extraordinary effect on the development of research at the university. As dean, he pursued a goal of enhancing research across the entire campus, involving as many professors as possible to build a strong base for attracting external funding. His insight and good judgment in managing the university’s limited resources led to major increases in the quality and impact of research at UNT. In this, he laid the foundation for the explosive increase in external research funding in the 1980s.
Graduate studies at the master’s level was first offered at UNT in 1935 in response to an increasing demand from Texas school systems for teachers with more than four years of college education. Master’s degrees were first offered in art, biology, chemistry, economics, education, English, physical and health education, and Spanish, with the first master’s degrees conferred in 1936.
Beginning in 1946, master’s programs were added in other departments and by 1950 the master’s degree was available in almost every area in which the institution offered the bachelor’s degree.
The Graduate School was established in 1946 as part of a major reorganization of the institution. The Board of Regents approved the first doctoral programs – a doctorate of education in education and a doctor of philosophy in music – in 1950. Today, doctoral programs are offered in all schools and colleges except the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management. Throughout the development of the graduate program, the pattern has been to build master’s programs on the base of well-established undergraduate programs and to build doctoral programs on the base of well-established master’s programs.
In recognition of the institution’s widening scope in higher education, the Texas Legislature approved that the North Texas State College be changed to North Texas State University in 1961. The university was designated in 1964 by the Governor’s Committee on Education Beyond the High School as one of the five major state-supported universities in Texas. In 1968, the Texas College and University System Coordinating Board confirmed the university’s mission to offer “top-quality doctoral programs ... in the basic arts and sciences, teacher education, business administration and the fine arts” as well as “cooperative doctoral programs in other fields.”
A new dimension in graduate education came in 1968 with the establishment of the Federation of North Texas Area Universities. With the guidance of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the federation was founded to expand and enrich the variety of graduate degrees available to residents of the area by sharing the resources of the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University in Denton, and Texas A&M University – Commerce.
Master’s and doctoral degree programs have been developed that permit students at one of the three participating institutions to complete a portion of their graduate work at either or both of the other two, although a single institution grants the degree. UNT grants eight master’s and seven doctoral degrees that are part of the federation consortium. In addition, 16 program committees have been formed to encourage cooperative activities between the participating universities.
In 1997 the Federation of North Texas Area Universities assumed the management of the Universities Center at Dallas, formerly the Dallas Education Center. Five universities cooperate in the offering of upper-division undergraduate courses and graduate courses that may be applied to programs and degrees offered by the three principal Federation universities, Texas A&M University – Commerce, Texas Woman’s University, UNT, and by the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Texas at Dallas. At the graduate level, a master’s in business administration degree can be completed entirely at the Universities Center at Dallas.
The UNT Dallas Campus offers junior-, senior- and graduate-level courses leading to bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Certificate programs and courses for career advancement are also provided. Courses and programs are of the same high quality as those offered at UNT in Denton and are taught by faculty from the Denton campus.
Students who enroll at the UNT Dallas Campus must meet the same admissions requirements as students who apply to the UNT campus in Denton. Dallas Campus students earn their degree from UNT. The University of North Texas Dallas Campus is located at 8915 S. Hampton Road, three blocks south of I-20 in Dallas.
UNT Dallas Campus features the region’s first virtual library, state-of-the-art classrooms, computer labs with Internet access, and other services to help students achieve success.
Enrollment has increased each year since the campus opened in January 2000. When Dallas Campus enrollment reaches 1,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students for one term/semester, UNT-Dallas can be opened as the first public university within the Dallas city limits. The new campus is under construction on 264 acres at Camp Wisdom and Houston School roads, about four miles east of the current location.
For current information about the University of North Texas Dallas Campus, call (972) 780-3600, or visit the UNT Dallas Campus web site at www.unt.edu/dallas.
The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth educates osteopathic physicians and biomedical scientists and emphasizes education, research and community services that promote and support disease prevention and primary health care.
The center, begun in 1970 as the privately funded Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM), became state-assisted and affiliated with the University of North Texas by action of the Texas State Legislature in 1975. The Health Science Center is governed by the University of North Texas Board of Regents. Currently, the Health Science Center’s three components are TCOM, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Public Health.
The graduate school offers a Master of Public Health degree and master’s and doctoral degrees in the biomedical sciences with specializations in anatomy and cell biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, microbiology and immunology, pharmacology, and physiology.
Medical students enrolled at TCOM also may acquire research training through enrolling in a joint DO/MS or DO/PhD program in biomedical sciences. Graduate students at UNT or the UNT Health Science Center may enroll at either campus through special arrangements of the respective graduate schools. Joint research and service activities are underway in such areas as aging, health promotion and public health.
At the undergraduate level, UNT and the UNT Health Science Center’s Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine offer a joint program in which selected premedical students complete three years on the UNT campus in Denton, then transfer to the medical school in Fort Worth to begin the four-year medical curriculum. The basic science courses taken in the first year of the medical curriculum serve to complete a BA in biological sciences or chemistry or the BA or BS in biochemistry at UNT. Students in this program thus save a year in their medical training, reducing the usual eight-year program to seven.
The Health Science Center campus is a 15-acre, $71 million medical-care complex in the heart of Fort Worth’s cultural district. It is home to the Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library, where virtually all the world’s medical knowledge may be accessed by students, faculty, and the public through sophisticated medical information systems.
Faculty expertise has fostered the development of five institutes at the UNT Health Science Center: the Texas Institute for Research and Education on Aging, the Substance Abuse Institute of North Texas, the North Texas Eye Research Institute, the Wound Care Institute and the Institute for Forensic Medicine.
Students interested in a graduate program in biomedical sciences or public health at the Health Science Center should contact the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences or the School of Public Health, UNT Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, or call (817) 735-2560 or (817) 735-2252.
The University of North Texas is the largest and most comprehensive research and doctoral degree-granting institution in the North Texas area and the flagship of the UNT System. The university is committed to excellence in teaching and the discovery and applica tion of knowledge through research and creative activities. As the educational leader in the North Texas region, the university is dedicated to the development of the area as the number one region in the nation.
The university:
The university continues to expand its relationship with the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth; to develop the University of North Texas Dallas Campus (UNT System Center at Dallas); and to cultivate partnerships with elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, other universities, businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of education and community life.
The University of North Texas will be one of the state’s top-tier universities – a premier educational, intellectual, research and cultural resource. As the flagship of a multi-institutional university system and the leading university of its region, UNT will be recognized for education, research, creative activities and public service, and for advancing innovations in the enhancement of learning. UNT will be an inclusive and diverse institution with an international perspective, helping to create high-quality graduates, an informed citizenry, and a workforce well prepared for the global economy.
To achieve this vision, the University of North Texas will:
UNT research programs focus on the solutions to problems at national, regional, state and local levels. To implement this approach, the university is developing new facilities specifically designed to provide state-of-the-art capabilities.
External research funding reached $24,744,514 in the 2004 fiscal year. Of this total, 45.9 percent was for research, 31.8 percent was for instructional projects, 17.3 percent supported public service efforts and 5.0 percent supported student services and other projects. Federal government agencies provided 74.7 percent of the funds, state agency funds amounted to 11.5 percent and private sources (including business and industry) provided 13.8 percent. Specific areas of research are described in the catalog section devoted to each academic unit.
External funding is an essential feature of university research. Many graduate faculty members receive grants and contracts from private foundations and corporations and from federal, state and municipal agencies. These funds are used in support of all forms of research activity, including employment of graduate research assistants. Fellowships are sometimes available in departments that have received federal training grants.
Research is integral to graduate education. It provides the opportunity for a student to demonstrate creative and problem-solving talents in a unique way that is wholly different from the organized classroom experience. Research activity by graduate students, under faculty supervision, is at the heart of the graduate teaching/learning experience. Inquiries about financial support should be made directly to the academic unit in which the student intends to enroll.
UNT has made a consistent commitment to expanding and improving the space and equipment available for research. The 60,000 square-foot Science Research Building provides state-of-the-art facilities for research in the departments of biological sciences, chemistry and physics, and the biochemistry program. The Environmental Education Science and Technology Building hosts the Institute for Applied Sciences and provides unmatched facilities for research, teaching and public outreach activities related to the environment. Together with other specialized laboratories spread throughout the campus, UNT provides high-quality space and equipment to support its teaching, research and service missions.
In addition to funds granted by external sources to support research, funds appropriated by the Texas Legislature in support of research by faculty members of the university are allocated through a peer-review process by a faculty committee of eight members appointed by the Faculty Senate. The committee is chaired by the associate vice president for research. The associate vice president for academic affairs and the dean of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies are ex-officio members. Faculty research grants are administered through the Office of Sponsored Projects.
Faculty research funds provide equipment, material and part-time support of graduate students and faculty members. For example, a graduate student may be employed as a research assistant in one of the many research projects under way on the campus, generally in the department in which the student is studying for an advanced degree. As part of a research assistantship, students often are able to undertake projects that contribute to completion of their thesis or dissertation requirement.
Results of faculty research include articles in professional and technical journals, published books and the development of new areas of research that may attract funding from sources outside the university.
Library facilities at the University of North Texas function as the nerve center for teaching and academic research. Four campus facilities house just under 2 million cataloged holdings, including books, periodicals, maps, documents, microforms, audiovisual materials, music scores, full-text journals and books.
Willis Library holds one of the country’s largest music libraries, extensive phonographic disc and tape collections, a broad humanities and social sciences collection, the University Archives, and the Rare Books and Texana collections. Other unique library collections include the private jazz collection of Stan Kenton, Don Gillis, Whit Ozier and Leon Breeden; the private library of Anson Jones, president of the Republic of Texas; Texas county histories; miniatures; and examples of important early publishing, printing and binding styles. The library is also a depository for U.S. and Texas government documents, including the Texas Register. The library also serves as an online morgue (cybercemetery) for government web sites and documents.
The Media Library in Chilton Hall houses a large collection of audiovisual materials, including motion pictures, tapes, recordings and videodiscs.
The Science and Technology Library, housed in the Information Sciences Building, emphasizes physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and library science and includes an outstanding collection in mathematics.
The Library Annex houses more than 400,000 lesser-used materials, a portion of the University Archives, and the preservation and technical services departments of the University Libraries. Items located in the annex are so noted in the libraries’ online catalog and a reading room is available for users in the annex. The Library Annex, located just off Airport Road on Precision, is near the main campus.
Through the libraries’ membership in Texshare, students with a Texshare library card may borrow materials at college, university and public libraries throughout the state of Texas. Contact library staff for details. Active participation in the AMIGOS Bibliographic Council provides access to a variety of computerized library services, including interlibrary loans, bibliographic database searching and shared cataloging. The libraries have a large number of electronic databases available for public use both on and off campus via computer linkage. The UNT Libraries hold a membership in the Center for Research Libraries. The center, which functions as an extension of the local collections, is dedicated to acquiring and lending materials that complement and supplement the collections of the major research libraries of North America. The University Library has been designated a major research library by the U.S. Department of Education.
Centralized computing services that support instruction, research and student learning are provided through Academic Computing Services (ACS). ACS is a division of the Computing and Information Technology Center and is located in Room 119 of
the Information Sciences Building. These services include support for a wide range of research computing platforms, student messaging, training, consulting and a university computing help desk. Check the web site at www.unt.edu/helpdesk.
In addition to the services directly supported by Academic Computing Services, computer services are also available from the University Libraries and many college, school and departmental computer support centers. Computer networks are installed in all academic departments, providing connectivity with a variety of general-purpose and specialized computing equipment. Online courses are offered with support from the Center for Distributed Learning using computing systems supported by the Computing and Information Technology Center.
Fourteen general access microcomputer laboratories, housing approximately 700 computers, are available to all students for use of both Windows and Macintosh personal computers. Laser printers are provided in all labs. Approximately 30 additional special-purpose labs serve students in particular disciplines or students living in university residence halls. In addition, all residence hall rooms have connections to the campus network, allowing students to have high-speed access to the Internet on their own computers.
Academic Computing Services provides electronic mail to all students via EagleMail, a web-based e-mail system. Students can activate their EagleMail access online via the EagleMail web page (eaglemail.unt.edu). EagleMail is used as an official communication medium between the university and students. Other Internet services available to students include personal web page publishing.
Academic Computing Services provides support for a variety of microcomputer-based software applications. Site licenses are maintained for microcomputer versions of SPSS, SAS, S-Plus and STATA which provide statistical analysis capabilities.
Several statistical analysis packages, including SAS, SPSS and S-Plus, are provided in many of the general access labs. Academic Computing Services also maintains a multi-node computing cluster to support concurrent execution of long-running user-compiled programs for computation-based research.
The Computing and Information Technology Center also serves as a repository for a substantial body of machine-readable data including the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) data archives, Standard and Poor’s COMPUSTAT and the Center for Research in Security Prices’ (CRSP) data sets. The University Libraries also maintain a number of databases and other research materials on CD-ROM servers that are accessible through the campus network.
Consulting and training are provided by Academic Computing Services to facilitate the use of research and instructional computing facilities by students. A series of short courses is offered each term/semester to allow students to gain the expertise necessary to use campus computer systems effectively, and a number of computer-based training programs are accessible within student laboratories or via the web (www.unt.edu/training). Experienced consultants are available to assist students with technical problems.
The Computing and Information Technology Center (CITC) operates a campuswide help desk service to provide students with information and help on a variety of computing problems (www.unt.edu/helpdesk).
Also, Benchmarks Online CITC’s newsletter, (www.unt.edu/benchmarks), is published monthly and serves as an excellent resource for current information systems at UNT.
The University of North Texas is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools [1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033-4097; telephone (404) 679-4500] to award bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Inquiries to the commission should relate only to the accreditation status of the institution.
The University of North Texas offers programs accredited by the following organizations.
Addresses of accrediting organizations are printed following the index. (click link)
In addition, the University of North Texas offers programs that are approved or recognized by:
The University of North Texas holds the following memberships.
John Robert “Bobby” Ray, Chair (2007), Plano
Burle Pettit,Vice Chair (2007), Lubbock
Charles “Chuck” Beatty (2005), Waxahachie
Marjorie B. Craft (2007), DeSoto
Tom Lazo Sr. (2005),Dallas
Robert A. Nickell (2009), Dallas
C. Dan Smith (2005), Plano
Gayle W. Strange (2009), Denton
Rice M. Tilley Jr. (2009), Fort Worth
Lee F. Jackson, MPA, Chancellor of the University of North Texas System
Norval F. Pohl, PhD, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and President of the University of North Texas
Ronald Blanck, DO, Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and President of the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth
T. J. “Jack” Morton, JD, Senior Vice Chancellor for Governmental Affairs
Danny Jensen, MLA, Associate Vice Chancellor for Governmental Affairs
Rey Rodriguez, MPA, Associate Vice Chancellor for Governmental Affairs
Nancy S. Footer, JD, Vice Chancellor and General Counsel
Phillip C. Diebel, BBA, CPA, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business Affairs
Richard L. Escalante, MA, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services
Cassandra Berry, BA, Associate Vice Chancellor for Equity and Diversity
Milton L. “Pat” Howell Jr., MS, Associate Vice Chancellor for System Facilities
Deborah S. Leliaert, MEd, Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing
A. Peter Giglio, BArch, AIA, NCARB, System Architect
Timothy N. Edwards, BBA, CIA, CFE, Chief Internal Auditor
Lee F. Jackson, MPA, Chancellor of the University of North Texas System
Norval F. Pohl, PhD, President of the University of North Texas, including the UNT Dallas Campus (UNT System Center at Dallas)
Howard C. Johnson, PhD, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Suzanne V. LaBrecque, PhD, Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Philip M. Turner, EdD, Vice Provost for Learning Enhancement
Celia Williamson, PhD, Special Assistant to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
T. Lloyd Chesnut, PhD, Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer
Richard Rafes, JD, PhD, Senior Vice President for Administration
Phillip C. Diebel, BBA, CPA, Vice President for Finance and Business Affairs
Gregory McQueen, PhD, Senior Vice President for Advancement
Brent E. Davison, BS, InterimVice President for Development
Bonita C. Jacobs, PhD, Vice President for Student Development
Deborah S. Leliaert, MEd, Vice President for University Relations
Joneel Harris, PhD, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management
Cassandra Berry, BA, Associate Vice President for Equity and Diversity
John R. Todd, PhD, Interim Associate Vice President for Institutional Research and Accreditation
Milton L. “Pat” Howell Jr., MS, Associate Vice President for Facilities
John Ellis Price, PhD, Vice Provost for the UNT Dallas Campus (UNT System Center at Dallas)
Herman Totten, PhD, Faculty Executive Assistant to the President
Paul Dworak, PhD, Director of Compliance
Richard Villareal, BS, Director of Athletics
Sandra L. Terrell, PhD, Dean of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies
Lawrence J. Schneider, PhD, Associate Dean of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies
Donna Hughes, BAAS, Director of Graduate Services and Graduate Admission
Administrators of the schools and colleges are listed in their respective sections of this catalog.
Sandra L. Terrell, PhD, Dean of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies, Chair
Lawrence J. Schneider, PhD, Associate Dean of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies
Suzanne V. LaBrecque, PhD, Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
Warren W. Burggren, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Oscar N. Garcia, PhD, Dean of the College of Engineering
Mary Thibodeaux, PhD, Interim Dean of the College of Business Administration
David W. Hartman, PhD, Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service
M. Jean Keller, EdD, Dean of the College of Education
Samantha Hastings, PhD, Interim Dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences
Judith C. Forney, PhD, Dean of the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management
James Scott, DMA, Dean of the College of Music
Michael Drought, MFA, Interim Dean of the School of Visual Arts
B. Donald Grose, PhD, Dean of Libraries
Jacqueline Chanda, PhD, Professor of Visual Arts
Rebecca Glover, PhD, Associate Professor of Counseling, Development and Higher Education
Kenneth Sewell, PhD, Professor of Psychology
J. Keith Johnson, MM, Regents Professor of Music
Grant E. Miles, PhD, Associate Professor of Management
Seifollah Nastrazadani, PhD, Associate Professor of Engineering Technology
Brian O’Connor, PhD, Professor of Library and Information Sciences
Jannon Fuchs, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences
Jose Perez, PhD, Professor of Physics
Lisa Henry, PhD Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Lew Taylor, DBA, Regents Professor of Management
“University of North Texas,” “UNT,” “Discover the power of ideas” and their associated identity marks, as well as the eagle and talon graphic marks, are official trademarks of the University of North Texas; their use by others is legally restricted. If you have questions about using any of these marks, please contact the UNT Division of University Relations, Communications and Marketing at (940) 565-2108 or e-mail branding@unt.edu.
Page last updated:
January 19, 2006
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