University of Texas at Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas is a public research university in Richardson, Texas, United States. It is the northernmost institution of the University of Texas System. It was initially founded in 1961 as a private research arm of Texas Instruments.
The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is associated with four Nobel Prizes and has members of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering on its faculty with research projects including the areas of Space Science, Bioengineering, Cybersecurity, Nanotechnology, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. UT Dallas offers more than 140 academic programs across its seven schools and hosts more than 50 research centers and institutes.
While the main campus is officially under the city jurisdiction of Richardson, one-third of it is within the borders of Dallas County. UTD also operates several locations in downtown Dallas – this includes the Crow Museum of Asian Art in the Arts District as well as multiple buildings in the Medical District next to UT Southwestern: the Center for BrainHealth, the Center for Vital Longevity, and the Callier Center for Communication Disorders.
History
Establishment
Before the founding of the University of Texas at Dallas, Eugene McDermott, Cecil Howard Green and J. Erik Jonsson had purchased Geophysical Service Incorporated on December 6, 1941 – the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. With the rapid increase in defense contracts due to declaration of war with Germany, the General Instrument Division of GSI grew substantially and was later reorganized under the name Texas Instruments, Inc. in 1951.The increase in defense contracts also created a shortage in the Dallas–Fort Worth area of the qualified personnel required by TI. At the time, the region's universities did not provide enough graduates with advanced training in engineering and physical sciences. Texas Instruments was forced to recruit talent from other states during its expansion, and the founders observed in 1959 that "To grow industrially, the region must grow academically; it must provide the intellectual atmosphere, which will allow it to compete in the new industries dependent on highly trained and creative minds."
To compensate for a shortage, McDermott, Green, and Jonsson established the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest on February 14, 1961. While the institute initially was housed in the Fondren Science Library at Southern Methodist University, a nearby empty cotton field was later acquired by Jonsson, McDermott, and Green in Richardson, Texas in 1962. The first facility, the Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Science, opened in 1964. The Graduate Research Center of the Southwest was renamed the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies in 1967.
On June 13, 1969, Texas governor Preston Smith signed House Bill 303, which added the institution to the University of Texas System as the University of Texas at Dallas. When Texas Instruments and UTD co-founders officially bequeathed the young university to the UT System, they boldly stated that they envisioned it would one day become the “MIT of the South.” At the time, the college only accepted graduate students for masters and PhD programs – no undergraduate bachelor's degree programs were offered. Francis S. Johnson served as the initial interim president before Bryce Jordan was selected in 1971.
Expansion and growth
In July 1971, Bryce Jordan became the university's first president and served until 1981. At that time the campus consisted of only one facility and only admitted graduate students. During Jordan's 10-year tenure the university received of land in 1972 from the Hoblitzelle Foundation. This allowed the campus to expand with the addition of a number of new facilities, including most notably the Cecil H. Green Hall, the Eugene McDermott Library, and a campus bookstore. The school received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1972, and the first diplomas were awarded in 1973.The first bachelor's degrees were awarded in spring 1976. The Callier Center for Communication Disorders became part of the UTD in 1975 and the School of Management opened in 1975. Enrollment increased from 700 in 1974, to 3,333 in 1975, and later to more than 5,300 students in 1977.
UT Dallas's first Nobel laureate, the late Polykarp Kusch, was a member of the physics faculty from 1972 to 1982.
The first art installation, the Love Jack by Jim Love, was added to UTD's campus in 1976. The Visual Arts Building opened in 1978.
Robert H. Rutford, an Antarctic explorer recognized with the naming of the Rutford Ice Stream and Mount Rutford in Antarctica, became the second president of UT Dallas in May 1982. He served in this post until 1994. During his tenure as president, the university secured approval for a school of engineering, added freshmen and sophomores to its student body, and built the first on-campus housing.
The school became a four-year institution in fall 1990. The initial incoming freshman class was about 100 students. The state mandated that admission criteria for entering freshmen "to be no less stringent than the criteria of UT Austin".
Franklyn Jenifer became the third president of UT Dallas in 1994 and served until 2005. During that time, UT Dallas's enrollment increased over 61% – from less than 8,500 to nearly 14,000.
Parts of the university's ceremonial mace have been brought into space. A steel band in the headpiece and the metal foot of the staff fashioned from a scientific instrument designed by the UT Dallas Space Sciences Institute and were flown aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in September 1995.
The Galerstein Women's Center opened in 1996. It was renamed the Galerstein Gender Center and then dismantled in 2023 after the passing of SB17.
In June 2005, David E. Daniel was appointed the university's fourth president. He previously served on the faculty at UT Austin and was the Dean of Engineering at the University of Illinois from 2001 to 2005. He has continued the expansion of the campus by adding the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory, the Center for BrainHealth, and almost 600,000 square feet of new facilities added from 2007 to 2010.
The first fight song was written in September 2008; it was written to the music of Tiger Rag.
Attempted DFW-area UT System mergers
In July 2001, the 77th Texas legislature failed to pass two proposed bills which had very different plans for the future of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex UT System intuitions.The first plan, 77 HB 3568 proposed by Kenn George, would have consolidated the two universities and one medical school under the name "The University of Texas at Dallas". It would have established UT Dallas in Richardson, Texas, as the main flagship campus, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as its medical school, and would have designated UT Arlington as a UT Dallas satellite campus. The purpose of the bill was to consolidate all DFW UT System institutions into one, creating a single cohesive flagship-level university for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. However, the bill was unpopular with supporters of UT Arlington and the House Bill ultimately failed to pass. Despite this, UT Dallas has continued a close relationship with UT Southwestern. UT Dallas' Center for BrainHealth and Callier Center were built right next to UTSW's main campus in downtown Dallas. Additionally, UT Southwestern later established a Clinical Center in Richardson next to UTD's main campus.
The second plan, 77 HB 3607 proposed by Domingo Garcia, would have transferred UT Dallas, UT Southwestern, and UT Arlington to the University of North Texas System. The Denton, Texas campus would have remained as the flagship university while the three Dallas–Fort Worth UT System institutions would have been designated as separate degree-granting sister UNT System colleges. Their names would have changed to the "University of North Texas at Dallas" located in Richardson, Texas, the "University of North Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas", and the "University of North Texas at Arlington". The law was left pending due to objections from both UT Arlington and UT Dallas, as both preferred to remain under the UT System.
Recent history
On July 15, 2016, Richard C. Benson was appointed the fifth president of the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously he was Dean of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, which saw record growth from 2005 to 2016 after the number of engineering applicants nearly doubled during his tenure. He has continued the expansion of the UTD campus with the addition of The Bioengineering and Sciences Building, The Engineering & Computer Science West Building, a new Science Building, The Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center, and Northside Phase 1 & 2.In 2018, the university inherited the Barrett collection of Swiss art which will be housed in a new building as part of the Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History. In January 2019, the family of Trammell and Margaret Crow donated the entire collection of the Crow Museum of Asian Art to The University of Texas at Dallas, along with $23 million in support funding to help build a structure on the university campus to show more of the artworks.
In fall 2019 UT Dallas marked its 50 years as a Texas public university, 44 years of undergraduate junior/senior enrollment, 29 years of incoming freshmen enrollment, and 58 years as a research center.
In April 2023, University of Texas at Dallas students protested the Gaza war and genocide. They staged a sit-in and setup an encampment, joining other campuses across the USA. The students demanded that the university divest from companies that contribute weapons to the war. The university administration called in riot police to forcibly remove the encampment and there were 17 arrests. UTD students were charged with trespassing on UTD land and threatened with disciplinary action.
On July 20, 2023, UT Dallas announced that it would leave the American Southwest Conference and transition to become an NCAA Division II school in the Lone Star Conference.
On August 26, 2024, UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson announced plans to step down from his position as the fifth president of the university. The UT System Board of Regents conducted a national search for his replacement over the course of the 2024–25 academic year, with Benson persisting in his role until a successor began their term, after which he would remain at the university in a faculty capacity. On May 7, 2025, the Board of Regents announced that Prabhas Moghe, former executive vice president for academic affairs at Rutgers University, had been voted as the sole finalist for the sixth UT Dallas presidency. Moghe's experience with raising research funding at Rutgers was cited as a primary reason for his selection.
In September 2024, the student newspaper The Mercury website was shut down by the administration and the editor removed, allegedly in retaliation for criticism of UTD actions against the pro-Palestinian protesters earlier in the year.