Plans for a UNT branch in Frisco raise concerns about straining state funds

[Harry]

Frisco and University of North Texas officials on Tuesday unveiled a plan for a 5,000-student branch. But the plan to add one more university campus to a North Texas region already served by almost 40 traditional colleges and universities has some lawmakers and education officials vowing to look closely at the plan before giving it their support.

 In a series of unanimous votes Tuesday, Frisco, two city entities and the UNT System board of regents paved the way for UNT to open the branch campus on Preston Road near the Dallas North Tollway. 

The votes call for UNT to begin construction by March 31, 2022, on land owned by Frisco entities at the southwest corner of Panther Creek Parkway and Preston Road. The branch would serve at least 5,000 students. 

Bringing a four-year university to Frisco has long been a goal of city leaders. 

"We couldn't be any more excited about what this partnership means for our community, for our businesses, for our residents and for our children here in Frisco to have these kinds of opportunities right here in their own backyard," Mayor Jeff Cheney said. 

The new branch would need approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board or the Legislature.

read more:  https://www.dallasnews.com/news/higher-education/2018/05/01/unt-frisco-city-leaders-approve-plan-build-new-branch

[Rudy]

I bet there'd be no issues if it was a TAMU or tu branch.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

----UT and A&M are funded from the "University Land Fund"  set up over a century ago .... which now takes in a fortune in oil money from mostly West Texas..  Starting in 1966 the Texas Legislature started changing names various colleges so they could also use those funds starting with Texas Western becoming UTEP and Arlington State becoming UT-Arlington. What was East Texas State, West Texas State, Texas A&I and others now have names which allow them to draw from it ... UNT,  TxTech, and some others do not have access to that money.  We are funded entirely differently.... 

----Thanks to those guys in the 1800's that created that fund, many of our colleges have that money available and is likely a huge contributing factor why that we don't have a state income tax  ... we don't need tax money collected for those colleges but other states do need tax money and don't have this type fund to fund education.  We have it because we we once an independent nation and kept our public lands. . There might not be issues if we were a TAMU or UT branch  but it isn't because of favoritism  for any group or person.  They have money available to them we can't access..... unless you want UNT  to become UT-Denton. 

--- Living in West Texas I am very aware that this area provides funding for so many universities of much of the state (mostly oil money) ..  Ever hear of Santa-Rita #1 near Big Lake.... it was the first University Lands oil well and began the oil money flowing into the account.   I think it is used only for construction and maintenance and not salaries etc. 

Edited May 4, 2018 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[wardly]

I attended UNT in early 60's, and if memory serves we had an opportunity to join the University of Texas System but declined.

[Salsa_Verde]

It seems to me that the Dallas Morning News can always be counted on to write a negative article about North Texas. Two other instances come to mind. Recently it was about the athletic department and how much of a deficit the program was running. This came out right around the time of the athletic fee vote. Another instance I remember was when North Texas achieved Tier-1 status. DMN immediately tried to downgrade the achievement as no big deal

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2016/02/14/4-texas-universities-recognized-for-research-work-but-are-they-tier-one

https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/collegesports/2018/04/09/unt-football-recruits-least-money-texas-public-schools-schools-break

my question is...what’s the deal?! Is there some long standing beef I don’t know about? 

GMG 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by Salsa_Verde

[UNTLifer]

Why my Mom stop taking that rag in the early 80's.  She always said they buried NT good news on page 10 and put anything close to negative on the front page.  Some things never change.