A Message from Dr. Musselman
We’re Growing and Always Improving
January 22, 2024
The stunning growth of The University of Texas at Dallas continues to excite me, and I am more excited than ever about the latest additions to Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost.
Our pledge to expand the faculty resulted in 91 new full-time faculty in 2023-24, and we intend to add 70 net new tenured/tenure-track positions and additional full-time teaching faculty as needed over the next two years.
That led to an expansion of our Faculty Mentoring Program. We even are developing postdoctoral mentoring under our faculty success initiatives because postdocs have such different needs.
More faculty plus more mentoring equals more management needs. We added two Associate Provosts, Dr. Sean Cotter (Faculty Affairs) and Dr. Meghna Sabharwal (Faculty Success).
We also celebrated growth in other areas during the fall semester.
Thanks to a $40 million gift from the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation, the innovation and growth of the arts at UT Dallas will continue their rapid rise in the newly renamed Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology.
And because of generous gifts from Texas Instruments and other donors and an investment from the Permanent University Fund of the UT System, we joined UT Southwestern leaders to dedicate the Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building. The $120 million, five-story facility on UT Southwestern’s East Campus will foster medical innovations to improve patient care.
There is more growth to come on our own campus.
We are beginning construction to make room for the new Student Success Center and Student Union, to be located just north of the McDermott Library. It is funded in large part by Capital Construction Assistance Project (CCAP) funding from the State of Texas and our students’ willingness to raise the Student Union fee for each semester from $60 to $100.
Also, we are on track to open the $158 million Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum later this year. The spectacular architectural complex will include three buildings: first, a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art; second, a performance hall; and third, a museum focused on the traditional arts of the Americas.
It all adds up to this: My enthusiasm for 2024 matches what is happening in our faculty numbers and our campus infrastructure – they both are expanding.
Dr. Inga H. Musselman
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost