DRC art not sports but gift to academics

[OldTimer]

UNT department given endowment worth more than $2 million

07:10 AM CDT on Thursday, September 11, 2003

By Matthew Zabel / Staff Writer

The University of North Texas’ Department of Behavior Analysis received an endowment worth between $2 million and $4 million to establish a new research program, university officials announced Wednesday.

Dr. Beatrice H. Barrett, who died last week in Massachusetts, left part of her estate with UNT to allow the department to advance its research.

UNT President Dr. Norval Pohl said the gift is one of the largest endowments the university has received and that it would help UNT expand one of its "pioneer programs that is recognized throughout the nation for the quality of its faculty and graduates."

"We hope this will be the first of a series of research endowments that will allow us to move our research forward," Dr. Pohl said in an announcement Wednesday.

More than 100 students and university employees gathered for the announcement Wednesday outside the department’s offices on the second floor of Chilton Hall.

University officials won’t know exactly how much the gift is worth until the estate is settled, Dr. Pohl said.

Dr. Sigrid Glenn, chairwoman of UNT’s Department of Behavior Analysis, said the gift would allow researchers to build on Dr. Barrett’s work.

Dr. Barrett, who spent several years as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, gathered information about people’s moment-to-moment behavior, Dr. Glenn said. She studied how people reacted to their environment and how the behavior changed as the environment changed.

Dr. Barrett conducted much of her research at Fernald State School in Massachusetts, and retired in 1992.

Dr. Glenn said she met Dr. Barrett in 1978 after reading her research on the topic.

Dr. Barrett’s research has already helped counselors and social workers deal with many behavior problems, Dr. Glenn said.

Building on that research, Dr. Glenn wants to study the brain activity as it happens and how it correlates with one’s behavior, a study Dr. Barrett considered the next step in her research.

"We have a way to very precisely measure behavior," Dr. Glenn said. "Now, we need to develop an accurate way to measure what’s going on in the brain and correlate that with the behavior changes."

Dr. Glenn said it’s hard to predict what the research would teach scientists, but she hopes it can further expand on the principles Dr. Barrett has already provided.

As part of the estate, UNT will receive Dr. Barrett’s 35,000 hours of research data.

UNT’s digital project department, part of the Willis Library, will help archive the data into a digital form, making it accessible to people worldwide.

"I think this is a wonderful project for the behavior and analysis folks, and I’m happy we can be a part of it," said Cathy Hartman, who directs the digital lab.

Dr. Pohl said the university could take some of the money from the gift in order to pay for some of the initial costs of the project. Then the money would be invested, so the interest could pay for a full-time researcher.

Dr. Glenn said she soon would begin searching for that researcher.

Many other members of the behavior analysis faculty will contribute to the research project, she said.

MATTHEW ZABEL can be reached at 940-566-6884.