RICHARDSON, Texas (August 11, 2006) — The University of Texas System Board of Regents has allocated $27 million for the construction of a new facility on The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) campus that will focus on research-based education in mathematics, science and engineering.
The regents approved the expenditure at a meeting held August 9-10 in Arlington. The funding is part of a spending package totaling $2.56 billion during the current and next fiscal years, the goal of which is to “boost competitiveness in key scientific areas,” according to UT System.
“We are delighted and appreciative that the UT System Board of Regents has selected UTD as the site for a major facility for practice-based research on effective teaching and learning techniques in the fields of math, science and engineering, both at the college level and K-12 grades,” said Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, executive vice president and provost of UTD. “The new facility will help establish UTD as a key player in an area that is a top education priority of the federal government and is vital to the future success of our nation.”
In addition to providing a significant enhancement of the educational experiences of UTD science and math students, the facility will also serve as a “demonstration center in which K-12 educators, working with UTD faculty from the university’s Department of Science and Mathematics Education, can study how to teach math and science more effectively,” Wildenthal said.
According to Wildenthal, the building will comprise an estimated 90,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory and office space and hopefully could be completed in time for the opening of Fall 2009 classes. Its location on campus has not been determined.
The building will continue an ambitious construction program underway at the university. Early next year, UTD is scheduled to open a new, 200,000-square-foot Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory on its campus, and a totally renovated, 63,000-square-foot headquarters for the Center for BrainHealth, located on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas.
In the past several years, UTD has completed a building for the School of Management, an expansion of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and a satellite facility for the Callier Center for Communication Disorders. In addition, the university purchased and renovated a building on Waterview Parkway just west of campus to house science faculty and university support staff.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls nearly 14,500 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s website at www.utdallas.edu.