University of Texas at Arlington

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The University of Texas at Arlington
Motto: Disciplina praesidium civitatis (Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy.)
Established: 1895
Type: State university
President: James D. Spaniolo
Faculty: 1,365
Undergraduates: 25,000+
Postgraduates: 5,620
Location: Arlington, Texas, USA
Campus: suburban, 400 acres (1.6 km²) on main campus
Colors: Blue and White[1]            
Nickname: Mavericks
Mascot: Blaze [2]
Website: www.uta.edu

The University of Texas at Arlington, usually referred to as UT Arlington or UTA, is a nationally recognized comprehensive doctoral/research university in Arlington, Texas, USA. It is classified by Carnegie as Research University - High Activity.[3] UT Arlington has a student population of nearly 25,000 and is the third largest institution of the University of Texas System. The university offers 78 baccalaureate, 73 masters, and 33 doctoral degrees. The university operates the Fort Worth Education Center and the Automated Robotics & Research Institute, with campuses at Santa Fe Station (downtown Fort Worth) and River Bend Park (east Fort Worth).

Contents

[edit] History

Established in 1895 as Arlington College, it was renamed Carlisle Military Academy (1902), Arlington Training School (1913), and Arlington Military Academy (1916). In March 1917, the school was renamed Grubbs Vocational College and became a state-supported institution for the first time as the northern campus of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University). While part of the A&M system, the school was renamed North Texas Agricultural College (1923) and then Arlington State College (1949). The college achieved four-year status in 1959.[4]

A 1963 reorganization of the Texas A&M University System focused on the College Station campus, even though the enrollment at Arlington State College exceeded enrollment at the College Station campus at the time. The decision by the Texas A&M University governing board to focus on the College Station campus led officials of Arlington State College and a number of Arlington citizens to enlist the support of Governor John Connally and key members of the Texas Legislature to separate Arlington State College from the Texas A&M University System and to join The University of Texas System. On April 23, 1965, Arlington State College officially became a part of The University of Texas System. Its name changed in 1967 to The University of Texas at Arlington.[5]

From 1972 until 1991, enrollment grew from 14,028 students to approximately 25,125. Enrollment in the fall of 1998 was 18,662 students. During that same twenty year period, 20 bachelor's degree programs, 23 master's degree programs, and 17 doctoral degree programs were approved.[6]

[edit] Presidents

  • Lee Morgan Hammond & William H. Trimble, 1895-1902
  • James McCoy Carlisle, 1902-1913
  • H. K. Taylor, 1913-1916
  • John B. Dodson, 1916-1917
  • Dean Myron L. Williams, 1917-1923
  • Dean Edward Everett Davis, 1923-1946
  • Dr. Brian Schwagart, 1939-1946
  • Dr. Josh Manlove, 1946-1959
  • Dr. Jack Royce Woolf, 1959-1968
  • Dr. Frank Harrison, 1968-1972
  • Wendell Nedderman, Ph.D. 1972-1992
  • Dr. Ryan Amacher, 1992-1995
  • Robert E. Witt, Ph.D. 1995-2003
  • Dr. Charles A. Sorber, 2003-2004 (Interim)
  • James D. Spaniolo, M.P.A., J.D., 2004-Present

[edit] Academic profile

The spirit logo
The spirit logo

The university contains 11 colleges and schools, each listed with its founding date:[7]

  • School of Architecture
  • College of Business Administration
  • College of Education
  • College of Engineering (1959)[8]
  • Graduate School (1965)[9]
  • Honors College
  • College of Liberal Arts
  • School of Nursing (1972, as The University of Texas Nursing School in Tarrant County; merged with UT Arlington 1976)[10]
  • College of Science
  • School of Social Work
  • School of Urban and Public Affairs (1967)

UT Arlington’s College of Engineering offers eight baccalaureate programs, 14 master’s and 10 doctorates. It is the third largest engineering college in Texas, with about 3,500 students. The staff includes approximately 150 full time and 20 part time faculty members, over twenty of whom are Fellows in professional societies.[11]

UT Arlington's School of Nursing has grown and developed into a nationally recognized program and one of the sixteen largest schools of nursing in the United States with more than 100 faculty and 1,000 nursing students. The school’s 9,000 alumni attended UTASON as their first choice to prepare them for their nursing careers as professionals with baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral degrees.[12]

UT Arlington's business program consistently ranks among the state's top programs in accounting graduates passing the certified public accountant exam; the most recent survey (for the Spring 2004 exam) showed UT Arlington as the top state program in terms of successful candidates. [5]

Unique liberal arts programs include Southwestern Studies and Mexican-American studies.

Special Collections of the university library include historical collections on Texas, Mexico, the Mexican-American War, and the greater southwest. An extensive cartography collection holds maps and atlases of the western hemisphere covering 5 centuries. Also included is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram photo archives, a collection representing over 100 years of North and West Texas history. All together, Special Collections holds more than 30,000 volumes, 7,000 linear ft. of manuscripts and archival collections, 5,000 historical maps, 3.6 million prints and negatives, and thousands of items in other formats. [6]

UT Arlington has the only accredited school of architecture in the North Texas region.[13]

UT Arlington is home of a university-based nanotechnology research facility, NanoFab Research and Teaching Facility.

For FY 2006, the university's research expenditures totaled $35 million, including $19 million of federal (p. 5, 2006 UT System Regents Accountability and Performance Report).

[edit] Athletics

Blaze, the UT Arlington Mascot
Blaze, the UT Arlington Mascot

UT Arlington's athletic teams are known as the Mavericks (the selection was made in 1971 and predated the Dallas Mavericks choice in 1980). UT Arlington fields teams or competitors in 14 NCAA Division I events, including baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, track and volleyball. UT Arlington is a charter member of the Southland Conference.

The University routinely wins conference championships and sends teams to NCAA tournaments. Volleyball achieved the greatest team success of all sports in the history of the university by advancing to the 1989 NCAA Volleyball Final Four. The women's basketball team played in the 2005 and 2007 NCAA tournaments; the men's basketball team made its first appearance in the 2008 NCAA tournament, losing in the first round against #1 seed Memphis.

UT Arlington has won the Southland Conference's Commissioners Cup more times than any other conference team - three times since the award was first instituted in 1998. The Commissioners Cup is awarded to the athletics program with the highest all-around performance in all conference events, including all men's and women's events.

UT Arlington's basketball and volleyball teams play at Texas Hall, which may be one of collegiate athletics' most distinctive facilities. Texas Hall is a 4,200 seat theater, and the teams play on the theater stage. Fans can sit either in the theater seats or in bleachers on the stage. In 2005, the University administration proposed a new Special Events Center, including a state of the art arena better designed for basketball and volleyball as well as other university activities.[14]

UT Arlington fielded a football program, playing out of Maverick Stadium, until 1985 when it was disbanded football after the season. The school administration blamed its decision on major losses, nearly $1 million a year, as well as low average attendance (5,600, the student body at the time was 23,100). By the end, the program was funded by the university's auxiliary enterprise income while the other 14 sports were under-funded, as football accounted for half the total athletic budget.[15] In April 2004, UT Arlington students voted by a 2-to-1 margin to increase their student athletic fees by $2 per semester-credit hour should the university reinstate football and begin women's golf and women's soccer teams; however, after review, President James D. Spaniolo dismissed the idea as too costly in terms of time and resources.[16]

[edit] Traditions

  • Bed Races: Since 1980, hundreds of students have gathered to watch teams consisting of four pushers and a rider race against each other in a race just over the length of a football field. Teams consist of student organizations, Greek organizations and residence halls from around UT Arlington.[17]
  • International Week: "I-week" is put together by the International Student Organization, and branches out the UT Arlington community in its entirety promoting diversity between cultures on campus. The most recent I-week will focus on 3000+ international students that currently attend UT Arlington by drawing attention to their nationality and through their cultural student organizations. I-week typically includes a Food Fair, Fashion Show, Global Extravaganza, Exhibits, and more.[18]
  • Maverics Maniacs: Created in 2002, the goal of this organization is to develop pride and school spirit. In its first year this organization became the one of the most popular on campus.[19]
  • UT Arlington Marching Band: Known as "The Ambassadors of the University," the UT Arlington Marching Band is one of the few college marching bands in the nation to exist without a football team. For almost 20 years, the UT Arlington Marching Band has pioneered a new path in musical and visual excellence, striving to provide audiences with state-of-the-art presentations. The band performs annually for crowds numbering 100,000 and is featured in exhibition performances at state and local contests, such as Bands of America and Regional UIL, as well as festivals and high school and professional football games. In 2001, the band performed in exhibition at the Bands of America Grand Nationals Championship, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 175 student musicians in the band represent almost all academic disciplines and majors within the University. Excellence and excitement are the cornerstones for the UT Arlington Marching Band's tradition of success.[20]
  • Rubbing Hereford's Head: Dr. E.H. Hereford was UT Arlington's president from 1946-58. His sculpted likeness still watches over students from its perch in the University Center. Superstition holds that rubbing Dr. Hereford's head gives good luck on exams. This tradition is now carried out online to bring good luck.[21]
  • Ooozeball: Oozeball is a tradition hosted by the Student Alumni Association[22] and Campus Recreation[23] to raise money for the Student Alumni Association Sophomore Scholarship. Once the amount for the scholarship is reached, all excess funds are donated to charity. In Oozeball, students play volleyball in artificial mud pits. Since its creation in 1989, Oozeball has become one of the most popular student traditions.[24]
  • Soaping the fountain: Occasionally mischievous students will pollute the main UT Arlington fountain at the east end of the flying bridge over Cooper street with soap, causing it to be filled with suds and requiring it to be drained and cleaned. Less often other fountains on campus are subject to the same soap abuse.
  • The University has had on-campus Christian associations for a long time, which actively promote Christian ideology, and recruit new student members. Organizations include Baptist Student Ministry at UTA,[25] Tri C, and other local churches in Arlington. Influence of the church organizations can be seen in Activities Fair day, International student 'Howdy' party, etc.[25]
  • Boxing Day: Going along with the tradition of Boxing Day in England, the students take the place of faculty for a day, and the faculty take the place of the students. This is done in order to show the hardships of each job.[citation needed]

[edit] Notable people

[edit] Alumni

Several famous individuals either attended or graduated from UT Arlington:

[edit] Faculty

  • José Ángel Gutiérrez - Political science professor, lawyer and founding member and past president of the La Raza Unida Party.
  • Charles T. McDowell - Professor Emeritus and former director of the Center for Post-Soviet and Eastern European Studies.
  • Allan Saxe - Renowned political scientist, author, lecturer, radio commentator, and philanthropist.
  • Vasant K. Prabhu - Electrical Engineering professor. Life Fellow of IEEE, and inventor of communication system designs.
  • K. R. Rao - Electrical engineering professor. Fellow of IEEE, and inventor of discrete cosine transform.
  • Stanley Palmer - Professor of History. Scholar of British history and member of UT Arlington's Academy of Distinguished Teachers (1996).
  • Joseph Bastien - Professor of Anthropology. Esteemed anthropologist and humanitarian presented with the La Cruz Andina de OrO Award (Andean Cross of Gold) for his work in Bolivia.
  • Dr. Chris Scotese - Well known for his work in plate tectonics, paleoclimatology and paleomapping. Maps of plate motions and past climates are commonly used by various oil and gas companies as well as fellow researchers.
  • Kaushik De - Professor of physics who worked on a study regarding the controversial synthetic basketball implemented by the NBA; Dr. De determined that the balls were much more slippery when wet than the prior leather balls.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ UTA Chat Wednesday, February 15, 2006 transcript on Branding Accessed 27 August 2007.
  2. ^ The Shorthorn - Mascot named Blaze
  3. ^ Carnegie Foundation website Accessed 6 March 2007.
  4. ^ History of the University Accessed 6 March 2007.
  5. ^ History of The University and Summary of Campus Planning Accessed 16 April 2007.
  6. ^ [ibid.] Accessed 16 April 2007.
  7. ^ Colleges, Schools, and Departments The University of Texas at Arlington. Accessed 15 September 2006.
  8. ^ University History - University Office of Finance and Administration The University of Texas at Arlington. Accessed 15 September 2006
  9. ^ University History - University Office of Finance and Administration The University of Texas at Arlington. Accessed 15 September 2006
  10. ^ [1] A background of the School of Nursing at UT Arlington Accessed 3 May 2007.
  11. ^ [2] About UsAccessed 3 May 2007.
  12. ^ [3] A background of the School of Nursing at UT Arlington Accessed 3 May 2007.
  13. ^ [4] National Architectural Accrediting Board: Architecture Programs Accessed 13 June 2007.
  14. ^ The Shorthorn: Fee awaits final approval
  15. ^ Executive Summary of the Neinas Report, UT Arlington Sports Expansion Study, 2004, Accessed May 13, 2008.
  16. ^ James D. Spaniolo, Sports Expansion Announcement, UT Arlington Sports Expansion Study, January 20, 2005, Accessed May 13, 2008.
  17. ^ UT Arlington Bed Races, 2005
  18. ^ UT Arlington International Week
  19. ^ Maverick Maniacs (collegesports.com)
  20. ^ UT Arlington Marching Band
  21. ^ Rubbing Hereford's Head
  22. ^ Student Alumni Association
  23. ^ Campus Recreation
  24. ^ Oozeball
  25. ^ a b UTA Baptist Student Ministry
  26. ^ UT ARLINGTON GRADUATION CELEBRATION TO FEATURE ALUMNUS TOMMY FRANKS
  27. ^ http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/University_of_Texas_at_Arlington_-_Notable_people/id/5562232

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The University of Texas System
v • d • e
Southland Conference
v • d • e
Federation of North Texas Area Universities
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