University of North Texas

Chemistry Building

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences houses 22 academic departments and programs and five public services (including a psychology clinic and a speech and hearing clinic), and eight student services (of which seven are labs).

UNT has been offering Bachelor of Science degrees for 105 years, Master of Science degrees (in biology, mathematics, chemistry, and economics) for 87 years, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in several scientific disciplines—including chemistry, biology, and physics—for 58 years. UNT is a sponsoring institution member (Ph.D.-granting) of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of 105 major research universities that leverage scientific research through partnerships with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. It has been a member of the consortium since 1954.[34]

Business Leadership Building

The College of Business is host to five academic departments: (i) Accounting, (ii) Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law, (iii) Information Technology and Decision Sciences, (iv) Marketing, Logistics, and Operations Management (v) Management. It offers seven undergraduate programs, fourteen M.B.A. and master of science programs, and six Ph.D. programs. In Fall 2011, the college moved into a new state-of-the-art Gold LEED certified $70 million facility named the Business Leadership Building. The college is accredited in both business and accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—accreditation for the former stretches back sixty-one years (1961) and the latter, thirty-five years (1987).[35]

The college of business was renamed in 2019 to the G. Brint Ryan College of Business following a gift from alumnus G. Brint Ryan, alumnus and UNT System Board of Regents Chairman. The $30 million gift awarded by Ryan and his wife Amanda will create at least six endowed chairs and provide funding for academic program initiatives over seven years. Among the areas of focus are taxation and tax research, entrepreneurship, finance, logistics, information technology, cybersecurity and behavioral accounting.[36]

In 2018, 5,093 students were enrolled as business majors at the undergraduate level.[37]

In 2018, 691 students were working on graduate degrees. The college is host to two research centers (ii) the Institute of Petroleum Accounting and (iii) the Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship.

U.S. News & World Report's "2021 Best Online Programs" ranked UNT 31st in the nation among the Best Online Graduate Business Programs.[38]

The College of Education is a legacy of the university's founding as a teachers college one hundred and thirty-two years ago. The college is organized as four departments and one center: (i) Counseling and Higher Education, (ii) Educational Psychology, (iii) Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation, (iv) Teacher Education and Administration, and (v) The Kristin Farmer Autism Center. The college offers 12 bachelor's degrees, 19 master's degrees and 15 doctoral concentrations. As of the 2010–2011 school year, the college certified over 1,147 teachers, the second largest number in the state by a university.[39] In 1979, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved renaming the "School of Education" to the "College of Education." At that time, the college was the largest in Texas and the Southwest, the largest doctoral program in the state, and the twenty-fifth largest producer of teacher certificates in the United States.[40] Its prior name, "School of Education," dates back to 1946, when the teachers college outgrew itself and reorganized as six schools and colleges.[41]

The College of Engineering, founded in 2003, inherited longstanding programs (i) Computer Science, (ii) Information Technology, and (iii) Engineering Technology—with majors in (a) Construction Engineering Technology, (b) Electronics Engineering Technology, (c) Manufacturing Engineering Technology, (d) Mechanical Engineering Technology, and (e) Nuclear Engineering Technology—and launched (iv) Computer Engineering, (v) Electrical Engineering, (vi) Materials Science and Engineering, (vii) Mechanical Engineering, and (viii) Biomedical Engineering (2014). The college is host to three research centers, one of which being the Net-Centric Software and Systems Center (launched February 24, 2009), a research consortium hosted by UNT and organized as a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (NSF I/UCRC). It is primarily funded by industry members (which as of 2012 consist of 16 corporations) and universities (which as of 2012 consist of 5). The focus is developing computing models for the future—models that go beyond applications with preordained fixed capabilities—models capable of services that are dynamically created, verified, and validated in the field and on the fly.

The College of Information was created in October 2008 by consolidating two existing academic units: Learning Technologies (formerly within the College of Education) and the School of Library and Information Sciences. The School of Library and Information Services was created in 1970 as an outgrowth of its former structure as the Department of Library Services.[42] The college sponsors three research centers, one being The Texas Center for Digital Knowledge.

The College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism houses the largest merchandising program in the nation and one of the largest hospitality and tourism management programs. The college offers bachelor's degrees with majors in digital retailing, home furnishings merchandising, hospitality management, event design & experience management, and merchandising, and master's degrees in hospitality management, international sustainable tourism and merchandising. It has the nation's first bachelor's in digital retailing and master's in international sustainable tourism. The college was formerly known as the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management.

Winspear Hall, inside the Murchison Performing Arts Center

The College of Music is a comprehensive institution of international rank.[43][44] Its heritage dates back one hundred and thirty-two years, when North Texas was founded. The college has the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.[45][46] It has been among the largest music institutions of higher learning in North America since the 1940s. The music library, founded in 1941, has one of the largest music collections in the United States, with over 300,000 volumes of books, periodicals, scores, and approximately 900,000 sound recordings.[44] North Texas was first in the world to offer a degree in jazz studies.[44][47] U.S. News & World Report ranked the jazz studies program as the best in the country every year from 1994, when it began ranking graduate jazz programs, to 1997, when it retired the category.[48] The One O'Clock Lab Band has been nominated for 7 Grammy Awards.

Previously called the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (PACS) and before that the College of Community Service, the college adopted its current name in Fall 2017. The college is organized in seven departments: Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology; Behavior Analysis; Criminal Justice; Emergency Management and Disaster Science; Public Administration; Rehabilitation and Health Services; and Social Work.[49]

The department of public administration is home of the nation's first comprehensive degree program in emergency and disaster management that launched in 1983. The degree incorporates interdisciplinary curricula from other colleges that include applied philosophy and environmental ethics. The degree is tailored for both management practitioners and researchers and is collaborative with the Federal Emergency Management Agency Region VI—based in Denton—which oversees Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Denton became home to FEMA when its predecessor, the Office of Civil Defense and Mobilization, constructed the nation's first Federal underground defense center in 1959.[50]

The college is host to five research institutes, one being the Turkish Institute for Police Studies (TIPS). The institute has, since its founding in 1999, been based at North Texas. Its institution is a collaboration between the Turkish National Police (TNP) and U.S. universities in areas of terrorism, organized crime, narcotics, administration, intelligence, and investigation.[51]

UNT and Texas Women's University began a joint Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) program in 2017.[52]

The College of Visual Arts and Design has the 10th largest enrollment of any art and design school accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and the second largest of any that awards doctorates.[53] The college name changes reflect the curricular expansion of programs. In 1992, what then had been the "Department of Art" within the College of Arts and Sciences, became "School of Visual Arts;" and in 2007, it became the "College of Visual Arts and Design." Art classes began at UNT in 1894, four years after its founding. Master's degrees were initiated in the 1930s and the first Master of Science degree in art was awarded in 1937.[54] Since 1972, the college has served as curator and custodian of the Texas Fashion Collection[55] that was started by Stanley Marcus in 1938.

Honors Hall

The Honors College offers academic enrichments, including honors seminars and exclusive classes only for high-achieving undergraduates. There is no age limit. Its classes can either supplement or substitute core coursework. Its objective is to challenge exceptional students at higher levels and to promote leadership. The college is an autonomous collegiate unit on equal footing with the other collegiate units. Academically, it offers no degrees; but its courses are integrated with the baccalaureate programs of the other ten constituent colleges and the journalism school. Graduates are awarded a special medallion. The college offers many perks, including scholarships, exchange programs, and exclusive housing—Honors Hall.

The college began as an honors program fifty-one years ago (Fall 1971). Its initial enrollment of 50, back then, quickly grew to 400. But the program lost support under a system of borrowing faculty members.[56] The Honors Program was reconstituted in 1994 and was elevated as a college in 2005.

Curricular journalism at North Texas dates back to 1945. As a department, Journalism eventually became part of the College of Arts and Sciences. The Graduate Division of Journalism began in the fall of 1970 under the direction of Reginald Conway Westmorland.[57] In 1999, twelve years after the death of Frank W. Mayborn, its graduate program was renamed the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. On September 1, 2009, the entire program was elevated as its own collegiate unit and named the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. Eight Pulitzer Prizes have been won by five of its alumni, among whom are Bill Moyers and Howard Swindle. Other notable alumni include Samir Husni and Cragg Hines. Since 1969, the news-editorial sequence has been accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; and since 1986, the entire program has been accredited. The school is in its eighteenth year as founding host of the annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.

Virginia Ellison (née Virginia Jones Paty; 1920–2009)—a North Texas alumna (BA, English, '41) who also taught English and journalism, sponsored the Student Press Club, and served as director of publicity at North Texas from 1942 to 1944—won a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship in 1945, the year she earned a degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.[58][59][60]

TAMS is a two-year residential early college entrance program that has, since 1987, served exceptionally qualified Texas students who otherwise would be attending high school as juniors and seniors. It was the first of its kind in the nation and, as of 2012, the only in the state and one of five in the nation.

The Toulouse Graduate School, founded seventy-six years ago,[61] is the academic custodian and administrator of all graduate programs offered by nine colleges and one school. It maintains records, administers admissions, and serves various roles in recruiting. It was renamed in 1990 in honor of Robert Bartell Toulouse, EdD (1918–2017), who joined in 1948 as a professor in the College of Education, then served dean of the Graduate School from 1954 to 1982. Toulouse, before retiring as professor emeritus, had served other roles at the university, including provost and vice president of academic affairs from 1982 to 1985.

Willis Library, Onstead Plaza and Promenade, and Jody's Fountain

UNT Libraries are made up of four public service points and two remote storage facilities. Willis Library is the main library on campus, housing the business, economics, education, humanities and social sciences collections along with microforms and special areas such as the Music Library, Government Documents, the Digital Library Division, Archives, and the Rare Book and Texana collections. The Media Library in Chilton Hall houses a large collection of audiovisual materials, including films, audiobooks, and video games (see Game Design, above). Video recording equipment and gaming consoles are available for checkout. The Sycamore Library houses the government documents, law, political science, geography and business collections. It also houses the Collaboration and Learning Commons, a place to study in groups, create multi-media projects, and record presentations. The Discovery Park Library supports the College of Engineering and the College of Information, Library Science, and Technologies. It covers multiple areas of engineering, library and information science, and learning technology.

Established in 1977, IELI is the largest intensive English program (IEP) in North Texas, serving international students who wish to learn academic English in preparation for university studies in the United States. IELI is a constituent of UNT International Affairs, an interdisciplinary unit and exponent of globalization in higher education that provides leadership and support of international teaching, research, and study-abroad initiatives. As of July 2015, IELI has been located in Marquis Hall on the UNT Denton campus.

Mozart Square, student housing for upperclassmen

All freshmen are required to live on campus to satisfy a residency requirement. 15.5% of students, or 5,620, live in on-campus residence halls. In addition, 37.3%, or 13,494, live within the city of Denton while 4,021, or 11.1% live outside of the city of Denton but within Denton County and 36.1% or 13,043 students live outside of Denton County.[3]

There are 15 residence halls on the Denton campus. UNT also offers the Residents Engaged in Academic Living (REAL) Communities program. The REAL communities offer students the ability to live with other residents in their major, and allow them to interact with each other and participate in programs that are geared toward their major or discipline.[62] On August 22, 2011, fifty-eight-year-old Maple Street Hall became the first all-vegan ("Mean Greens") college cafeteria in the country.[63] The given 14 residence hall at the University of North Texas are : Bruce Hall, Clark Hall, College Inn, Crumley Hall, Joe Greene Hall, Honors Hall, Kerr Hall, Legends Hall, Maple Hall, Mozart Square, Rawlins Hall, Santa Fe Square, Traditions Hall, Victory Hall, West Hall.

The Pohl Recreation Center is the student recreation center located on the campus of the University of North Texas.[64]

The social Greek community is made-up of four councils that oversee 42 fraternities and sororities.[65] Four percent of undergraduate students of both genders are members of social fraternities and sororities.[66]

North Texas adopted Green and White as its official colors during the 1902–1903 school year.[46]

In High Places

UNT's mascot, the American eagle, was adopted on February 1, 1922, as a result of a student-faculty council debate and ensuing student election.[67]

The eagle has had three nicknames, beginning with "Scrappy" in 1950.[68] The human costumed eagle character, launched in 1963, carried the name "Scrappy" until 1974—during the throes of the Vietnam War—when students adopted the name "Eppy" because it sounded less warlike. Since then, the name has switched back and forth, from Eppy to Scrappy; but for the last twenty-seven years, the name "Scrappy" has endured.

The name "Mean Green," now in its fifty-fifth year, was adopted by fans and media in 1966 for a North Texas football defensive squad that finished the season second in the nation against the rush.[69] That season, Joe Greene, then a sophomore at North Texas, played left defensive tackle on the football team and competed in track and field (shot put). The nickname "Mean Joe Greene" caught-on during his first year with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969 when Pittsburgh fans wrongly assumed that "Mean Green" was derived from a nickname Joe Greene had inherited while at North Texas. The North Texas athletic department, media, and fans loved the novelty of the national use of its nickname, and its association with Joe Greene's surname and university's official school color. By 1968, "Mean Green" was branded on the backs of shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and the cover of the North Texas football brochure.[70]

Francis Edwin Stroup, EdD (1909–2010),[71] emerged in 1939—ten years after graduating from North Texas—as the winning composer (lyrics and music) of a university sponsored fight song competition organized by Floyd Graham.[72] He taught summers at North Texas from 1939 to 1942. The song, "Fight, North Texas," has endured for eighty-three years and the lyrics have changed minimally to reflect the name changes of the university. While serving as an associate professor at the University of Wyoming from 1946 to 1950, Stroup rewrote the lyrics for the chorus to "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," which was adopted in 1961 as the university's fight song. After serving as head of the Physical Education Department at Southern Arkansas University from 1950 to 1959, Stroup became Professor of Physical Education at Northern Illinois University. While there, Stroup rewrote the lyrics to the chorus of Alonzo Neil Annas' (1882–1966) NIU "Loyalty Song" (1942), which was informally adopted in 1961 and officially 1963 as the "Huskie Fight Song."[73][74][75][76][77] Stroup also composed songs for Drake University and the University of Chicago. A collegiate academician who played piano mostly by ear and neither majored nor worked in music, Stroup lived to be 101, a number exceeding the songs he composed by one digit. Stroup was inducted in the Halls of Fame of Northern Illinois University and the University of North Texas (1987).

In 1919, Julia Smith (1905–1989), while a music student, and Charles Kirby Langford (1903–1931), then a third-year letterman on the football team and an outstanding overall athlete, composed "Glory to the Green and White" which was adopted as the school's alma mater in 1922. Smith wrote the music and Langford wrote the lyrics.[78][79]

The Spirit Bell—a 2,000 lb (910 kg) bell brought from Michigan in 1891—was a curfew bell from 1892 to 1928. The Talons, a spirit and service organization formed in 1960, acquired it in the 1964, mounted it on a wagon, and began the tradition of running it around the football field to rally fans.[81] It was retired to the University Union in 1982 after it developed a crack. A similar 1,600 lb (730 kg) Spirit Bell is currently in use at games.[82] A different organization by the name "Talons" was founded in 1926 as the first social fraternity at North Texas.[83]

On Homecoming Fridays, the Talons light a bonfire built from wooden pallets, typically in a 40-by-40-by-25-foot-height structure. The tradition has endured since the 1930s.[82]

"Boomer" is a cannon fired by the Talons at football games since the 1970s. It is a 7/8th scale M1841 6 pound, smooth bore muzzleloader, resting on hand-crafted solid oak from the campus. Talon alumni have restored it three times, the most recent being in the Fall of 2007, adding a custom limber for transport and equipment.[82]

The Mean Green Machine, a green and black 1931 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan, is driven by the Talons Motorpool Committee at football games and special events. It was donated by alumnus Rex Cauble in 1974.[82] In 2012, a team of engineering students installed a NetGain WarP 9 electric engine. As of 2016, the Mean Green Machine has been re-equipped with a modified Model A engine after complications with the electric engine.[84]

Hurley Administration Building

McConnell Tower, the clock tower atop the Hurley Administration Building at the center of campus, is bathed in green light for victories. The clock is depicted on the official class ring with two different times on its faces: 1:00 (for the One O'Clock Lab Band) and 7:00—the curfew initiated in 1892.[82]

The eagle talon hand signal is formed by curling the thumb and index and middle fingers forward—the ring and pinkie fingers stay closed against the palm.[82]

"In High Places," is a 22 ft (6.7 m) tall bronze statue of a flying eagle created by Gerald Balciar and dedicated during the university's centennial in 1990.[82]

KNTU (88.1 FM), licensed and owned by the university and operated by students, has, for fifty-three years,[85] broadcast to the North Texas region. Jazz has always been a feature of the station; but in 1981, it became the predominant format. KNTU began broadcasting in stereo in 1986 and, on March 22, 1988, increased its broadcasting power from 6,700 watts to 100,000, extending its reach to about a 60-mile radius from its tower located on the Denton campus. KNTU is part of the Mean Green Radio Network, which reaches 10 million listeners. Under the guidance of now-retired faculty member Bill Mercer, several sports broadcasters and radio personalities have emerged from North Texas, including Dave Barnett formerly of ESPN, George Dunham, and Craig Miller.

NTTV, UNT's 24-hour cable television station, features student-produced and student-centric programming.[86]

North Texas Review is an annual publication of the English Department. It is produced by UNT students and exclusively features works—art, poetry, fiction, non-fiction—by UNT students.[87]

Student yearbooks through the years have included Cotton-tail (1906), Yucca (1907–1974), Wings (1977–1980), and Aerie (1982–2007). Aerie ceased publication after the 2007 edition, following a trend of the digital age cited by The Economist in 2008.[88][89][90]

North Texas is the home of American Political Science Review as of July 2012. The journal moves among national universities every four to six years. UNT will be the first university in the South or Southwest to house the publication.[91] ISSN 1537-5943

The North Texas Daily is the official university daily newspaper, staffed by students. Print issues are published Tuesday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, and weekly during the summer.[92] The paper was founded in 1916 as The Campus Chat and adopted its current name in 1971.

In its 109–year history of intercollegiate athletics, the North Texas football team has won 24 conference championships, with the last four occurring from 2001 to 2004 in the Sun Belt Conference.[93] As of 2014, the team has appeared in eight bowl games, winning two including, the 2002 New Orleans Bowl and the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl. Currently, Seth Littrell serves as the head coach, and is in his 6th year as head coach. From 1952 to 2010, home football games were played at Fouts Field. In 2011, UNT began playing in newly constructed Apogee Stadium.

The North Texas men's basketball team won the 2006–07 Sun Belt Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The season marked the beginning of four consecutive seasons of 20-plus wins. North Texas won the Sun Belt Conference championship again during the 2009–10 season, and again advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The 2022–2023 season marks the fiftieth season that the UNT Coliseum has served as the home for Men's basketball.

The head coach of the North Texas Mean Green women's basketball team is Jalie Mitchell.