Transforming the University of Texas at Arlington

This fall marks five years since I was named president of the University of Texas at Arlington. Even before I arrived on campus, I recognized the great promise of this University. In less than five years, weÂ’ve accomplished much. UT-Arlington is a university in the midst of transforming, laying the groundwork for the future. Consider the progress weÂ’ve already made:

Adding more than 75 new tenure-track faculty positions and successfully recruiting nationally recognized scholars and research faculty.

Building or renovating more than a dozen buildings, adding 1.2 million square feet to our physical plant. Much of that has been laboratory space, allowing us nearly to triple our research expenditures since 2003.

Increasing campus residency, with almost 4,500 students living on campus – the highest percentage of any school in the UT System.

Doubling enrollment at the Fort Worth Center to more than 1,000 students.

Our research expenditures now exceed $60 million annually, up 33 percent from last year. I challenge you to find another university where research has grown so quickly. We are an active participant in the conversation about the direction of higher education in Texas. But our ultimate goal is not just to be in the conversation about major research universities, our goal is to be one of those. It wonÂ’t happen next year or in five years. It will take a decade or more. But if we continue on the trajectory weÂ’ve established, our record will speak for itself. And we will have achieved whatever designation or distinction we have according to the old-fashioned way: We will have earned it.

In our new Civil Engineering Lab Building, our faculty and corporate partners are designing better infrastructure for our cities. Next comes a groundbreaking for our Engineering Research Complex, the centerpiece of which will be the Engineering Research Building, one of the largest on campus. These facilities will allow our engineering faculty to work side-by-side with their colleagues from the College of Science, including clusters of biologists, physicists, chemists, neuroscientists and mathematicians. Our innovative SmartHospital, which celebrates its first birthday this fall, has transformed the training of health-care providers with cutting-edge technology.

We also have celebrated the opening of The UT-Arlington Optical Imaging Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a facility that will advance possibilities in bioengineering and in academic collaboration. We also have significant collaborations with the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. We’re continuing to expand on an already strong relationship with Tarrant County College – a relationship that is a model for others to follow. In colleges and schools across our campus, we’re working with universities, medical centers, research groups and corporations too numerous to mention.

Enrollment in our freshman class is up almost 9 percent from last year, and more than half of these students graduated in the top quarter of their high-school class – including a record number in the top 10 percent. Their average SAT score is up, and we awarded more merit-based scholarships this fall than ever before. The number of students transferring from community colleges to UT-Arlington has increased 7 percent and more than eight in 10 of them qualified for merit-based scholarships.

We continue to have one of the most diverse campuses in the nation. Our overall enrollment for the fall semester is 25,061, with a 6-percent increase in Hispanic students and a 22-percent increase in new doctoral students.

Almost five years ago, I concluded my investiture speech by quoting one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost. “I have promises to keep,” Frost wrote, “and miles to go before I sleep … and miles to go before I sleep.” We’ve come a long way since then at UT-Arlington. But we still have miles to go before we rest. There’s not a day to waste.

EditorÂ’s Note: This is an excerpt from an address by the president of the University of Texas at Arlington, James D. Spaniolo, at the fall Leadership Luncheon.