The Next 130 Years of UT Arlington

Exactly 130 years ago, a group of Arlington, Texas, residents decided to help their small but expanding city meet its growing educational needs. At the time, one-third of Arlington’s population was under 10 years of age, and the sole public school was overflowing with pupils.

Little could Edward Emmett Rankin, Lee Morgan Hammond, William M. Trimble, and their partners have imagined what the school they built—Arlington College—would eventually become.

Today, leaders at The University of Texas at Arlington are well aware of both the power the institution has to improve lives and the challenges it faces in doing so. But that isn’t stopping them from dreaming as big as the founders did back in 1895.

So while UTA is celebrating an important historic milestone this year, it is also keeping an eye on the future and how best to serve the next generation of Mavericks.

Planning and Recruiting

In 2024, President Jennifer Cowley introduced UTA 2030: Shared Dreams, Bright Future, a strategic plan that outlines the University’s top priorities and goals for the next five years. It is organized around five themes—people and culture, student success, research and innovation, alumni and community engagement, and finance and infrastructure—each with its own strategies, tactics, and desired outcomes. With UTA 2030, the University aims to amplify its community impact by rooting it in academic excellence, innovative research, and committed public engagement.

One of the notable initiatives launched in conjunction with UTA 2030 is Recruiting Innovative Scholars for Excellence (RISE 100), a transformative multiyear project to hire 100 new tenure-stream faculty. Part of the research and innovation strategic theme, RISE 100 is designed to strengthen UTA’s research portfolio while expanding training and learning opportunities for students. It is supported in part by the UT System Regents Research Excellence fund and the Governor’s University Research Initiative.

Over 50 faculty have accepted positions at the University since the initiative’s launch in late 2023, including Hongtei Eric Tseng, a renowned expert in vehicle autonomy and National Academy of Engineering member, and researchers focused on critical topics like biobehavioral health, cybersecurity, semiconductors, and brain health.

These new scholars will help the University chart a bold course toward its goal of producing $300 million in annual research expenditures by 2030 and further enhancing UTA’s $29 billion annual economic impact on the state.

Westward Expansion

Over its 130-year history, UTA has steadily expanded its scope and mission to meet the needs of the populations it serves—becoming a junior college in 1917, expanding into a four-year university in 1959, establishing an initial Fort Worth footprint in 1987, and earning the elite Carnegie R1 status in 2015, to name a few examples. In August 2024, it announced its next great ambition: to develop a campus on the border of west Fort Worth and Parker County.

Set to open in fall 2028, UTA West will feature cutting-edge academic and research facilities that will bring together students, faculty, and industry leaders to drive innovation. By offering degrees in high-demand fields, the campus will play a crucial role in supplying a skilled homegrown workforce to support the region’s continued growth while serving as a key educational and research hub for the North Texas economy.

Under the direction of architecture firm HKS and general contractor Hensel Phelps, UTA West will be designed to expand in step with regional population growth, ultimately serving more than 10,000 students.

“Our Arlington campus started 130 years ago in a small wood-frame building. The scene probably looked a little like this,” Dr. Cowley said at the groundbreaking in April. “But we grew alongside the region, becoming a national research university and an engine for growth—academically and economically. That’s our shared vision for UTA West.”

Infrastructure Upgrades

While the development of the UTA West site is just getting started, the main campus is right in the thick of several major infrastructure projects. Among these are significant renovations to extant facilities, including the following:

• the north and south pedestrian bridges spanning Cooper Street, which were remade with a sleek design created by a student team from the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs;
• the Fraternity and Sorority Life Community Center, which now offers a dedicated space for the University’s 33 fraternities and sororities to gather, host events, and develop leadership skills;
• the Life Sciences Building, which is in the middle of a multiyear refurbishment aimed at providing more space for research labs, teaching labs, and classrooms;
• and the University Center, which starting this December will undergo a 30-month-long modernization effort that involves filling in the basement level and adding a third story, reorganizing its layout, and expanding the available space.

In addition to renovations, the University is opening new facilities to better meet the needs of its students, researchers, and industry partners. In late March, the College of Nursing and Health Innovation debuted its Mobile Simulation Lab, a 40-foot-long commercial vehicle equipped with simulation bays and advanced health robots. The cutting-edge unit will enable the University to help address critical workforce and training challenges in rural areas of the state. Currently, more than a quarter of Texas’ 172 rural counties lack a hospital, and those with at least one often struggle with a shortage of qualified health care personnel.

Later this fall, the UTA Research Institute in Fort Worth will open the Maverick Autonomous Vehicle Research Center, a state-of-the-art outdoor drone facility that will complement and expand existing autonomous vehicle research. The netted structure will be equipped with cameras and sensors, allowing researchers, students, and local companies to safely test and experiment with unmanned vehicles.

Finally, UTA will welcome students to the first new residence hall on campus in almost a decade when Maverick Hall opens later this year. The 654-bed, five-story facility will be the University’s largest and tallest residence hall and will offer versatile learning spaces, student engagement areas, and centralized gathering spots.

Academic Expansions

UTA isn’t just upgrading its physical presence; it’s also introducing new academic programs and workforce training.

This fall, the College of Business will launch the University’s first degrees in hospitality management. The industry—which includes restaurants, hotels and resorts, travel and tourism, theme parks, and sports entertainment—is projected to be one of the fastest growing globally over the next 10 years.

UTA’s two new degrees, a Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science, will provide a strong foundation in business management and leadership along with courses in accounting, operations management, industry marketing and sales, business analytics, and information technology. Thanks to a gift from the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation and Loews Hotels & Co, an endowed scholarship will provide financial assistance to select students majoring in the field.

“We’re lucky to be here in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex because we have so many partners to offer our students internships and learning opportunities,” says Michael Nalley, director of the hospitality management program. “We’re really trying to make sure we understand the needs of the industry so we can develop our students to meet them and excel upon graduation.”

The College of Liberal Arts is also debuting new programs to support the burgeoning local film scene. In 2023, the state legislature passed the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program to encourage more filmmakers to bring their productions to the state.

In response, UTA has added a commercial filmmaking minor, microcredentials to certify students as “on-set” ready for working on film sets, and, most recently, a production assistant program in conjunction with Weatherford-based 101 Studios.

With all these exciting plans in motion, UTA is well on its way to writing the next chapter of its Maverick story. See you back here in 2155!