UTA President Jennifer Cowley delivers a presentation to the Arlington City Council during their afternoon meeting June 9 at Arlington City Hall. Cowley gave updates on campus construction, new degree plans and programs.
UTA President Jennifer Cowley presented several updates about the university at the afternoon Arlington City Council meeting Tuesday.
Updates included campus construction, new degree plans being offered and how new programs at the university are doing.
Construction
The Life Science Building construction project, which began in 2023, is nearing completion and should open in “about a year,” Cowley said.
“That is our largest construction project in our history,” she said. “We are renovating more than 200,000 square feet of space, plus we have about 100,000-square-foot addition.”
The $183 million investment will include modern laboratory spaces, innovative classrooms and a fermentation lab.
Construction on the University Center is beginning to take shape. The project aims to demolish the western half of the building and replace it with a space that meets the needs of students, Cowley said.
“It’s about 100,000-square-foot addition, plus the renovation of the existing 99,000 square feet of space,” she said.
Cowley called the space an engagement hub and said it will have more meeting spaces, for both students and community members, more dining locations and informal learning locations.
“We really want this to be a community hub for our students,” she said.
There is also construction of a new research facility on Pecan Street, Cowley said.
“That is a really exciting partnership that we’ll be able to announce in the next couple of months with a series of companies to make UTA a national center of excellence,” she said.
Attendees watch a presentation on UTA updates June 9 during the afternoon council session at Arlington City Hall. Several council members praised the plans presented at the meeting.
Degree plans
The university is planning to add four new academic programs for students to choose from. Doctorate of Social Work, Doctorate of Data Science, Master of Science in Systems Safety Engineering and Management, and Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity.
Cowley said UTA recently received approval from the state for the Doctorate of Social Work program and is in the process of applying for the Doctorate of Data Science.
“Those are all new academic programs that you can be looking forward to soon,” she said.
Programs
Mavs In The Metro debuted this year, allowing UTA students the opportunity to work internships with the city of Arlington. The partnership between the university and the city government is a summer program that allows students to earn between three and nine credits while working up to 20 hours per week.
Students enrolled in the program also volunteer with a local non-profit.
“We really want to develop the civic infrastructure of our students to make sure they want to create impact in the community, and so we had 11 students that are participating this summer,” Cowley said.
The new Power and Energy Innovative Research Lab, located in south Arlington, was awarded an $86 million contract from the United States Navy. The facility is a defense-focused testing and demonstration lab, according to a university press release.
The lab’s flexible power system can simulate conditions that real-world ships would face at sea.
“The Navy has been so pleased with the partnership,” Cowley said. “They brought other teams to explore other areas in which we can grow our partnership, so this is a win-win, both for the city and for the university.”
Council Questions
Council member Raul Gonzalez asked Cowley how the decline in international enrollment is affecting the university.
Cowley said the international population is “evaporating at every university in the country,” not only at UTA. She said there was a decline in international enrollment last year, and there will be an even bigger decline this year.
Gonzalez also asked how buyouts are affecting the university and if university officials were surprised by the number of buyouts taken.
Cowley said based on reductions in the budget, the university had two choices: lay people off or buy them out. She said around 200 people out of 5,000 employees took the buyout at UTA and that allowed the university to only lay off “very few people as a result.”
Council member Barbara Odom-Wesley asked Cowley about women’s flag football and if there were any updates on the program.
Cowley said the first season will be next spring and the team will play at Maverick Stadium. The first class of athletes has already been recruited and are joining the university in the fall.
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