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Warren von Eschenbach, president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, gives his remarks at his investiture on May 1, 2026 in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The University of North Texas at Dallas<\/p>\n
As universities face eroding public trust, Warren von Eschenbach, the University of North Texas at Dallas\u2019 new president<\/a>, wants to change higher education\u2019s narrative. To do so, he\u2019s returning to the young school\u2019s founding mission: to be a \u201cbeacon of hope and promise\u201d for southern Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe founders of UNT Dallas understood that in addition to degree programs, curricula and credentials, universities are about people and community,\u201d von Eschenbach said at his investiture Friday. \u201cThey knew that universities are instrumental in fostering regional pride, forging community identity and increasing positive social, cultural and economic activity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Von Eschenbach is taking the helm of UNT Dallas at a challenging time for universities. Under increased scrutiny from state and federal leaders, universities face rising political and financial pressures. Americans’ perceptions of the importance of higher education continue to fall, according to a recent Gallup poll.<\/a><\/p>\n But von Eschenbach sees an opportunity to prove UNT Dallas\u2019 value by focusing on the public and social goods universities offer, and by positioning the school as a \u201ctransformative power\u201d for students, their families and the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to be about socioeconomic mobility and the workforce. But that\u2019s not all who we are,\u201d he said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News this week. \u201cAnd so the narrative that we\u2019re just focusing on ROI or degree programs or that universities are instruments solely for economic activity\u00a0\u2014 that needs to shift, because we\u2019re much more than that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n On Friday, in front of faculty members, students, elected officials and other North Texas university leaders, von Eschenbach presented his vision for the 15-year-old university to be the \u201cleading public regional university\u201d in southern Dallas and Ellis County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He highlighted three main commitments: to create an \u201ceducational ecosystem\u201d that supports students in both personal and academic growth, to \u201cfuture proof\u201d students against evolving technology by instilling \u201chuman skills\u201d such as resilience and empathy, and to restructure the university so that academic programs keep up with rapidly changing workforce needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n UNT Dallas free tuition program<\/p>\n During his speech, von Eschenbach\u00a0announced the creation of a free tuition program for Texas students<\/a> whose families make $100,000 or less. The program will help more Texans, many of whom hadn\u2019t previously thought about college as a possibility, get a degree without going into debt, he said. That education will, in turn, benefit students\u2019 families and communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Around 70% of UNT Dallas\u2019 3,500 students are the first in their family to go to college.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: UNT Dallas announces free tuition for Texas students. See if your family qualifies<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey know that being a trailblazer means not only being the first for yourself, but more importantly, creating a path for others to follow,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the transformative power of higher education: to transform students by empowering them through education to strengthen their communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Von Eschenbach, who previously served as vice chancellor for academic affairs for the UNT System, became UNT Dallas\u2019 fourth president in August. A philosopher and longtime university administrator, von Eschenbach has said he aims to provide UNT Dallas students with a \u201cholistic education\u201d that prepares them for lifelong careers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The university boasts one of the most diverse student bodies in Texas\u00a0\u2014 most come from middle- to low-income households and most are from the Dallas-Fort Worth region. It\u2019s also quickly expanding, adding academic programs and buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: UNT Dallas works to bring more health care workers to southern Dallas<\/a><\/p>\n Local leaders have hailed UNT Dallas as a catalyst for economic growth in the historically underserved region. Multiple developers have planned large-scale projects near the campus that will bring single-family homes, apartments and retail in the next few years.<\/p>\n Related: Don\u2019t leave southern Dallas behind amid North Texas boom, business leaders say<\/a><\/p>\n Keeping up with unpredictable job market<\/p>\n On Friday, von Eschenbach pledged to maintain UNT Dallas\u2019 role as an anchor institution in southern Dallas while revamping teaching and learning to help students withstand an unpredictable labor market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n University officials are redesigning the first-year experience so students can acquire the\u00a0 \u201cenduring human skills employers seek,\u201d such as empathy, self-awareness and resilience. Success coaches will mentor students across campus. Students will also be required to have five experiential learning activities <\/a>before graduation, with at least one being an internship or employer-based group project.\u00a0<\/p>\n Von Eschenbach also announced a plan to redesign UNT Dallas\u2019 degree programs and academic departments to make them more interdisciplinary and nimble as the workforce changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s significant challenges are large scale and complex,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should therefore train our students how to integrate multiple perspectives and multiple disciplines in understanding the world and its challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to industry feedback, a new Bachelor of Arts in cybersecurity, for example, will combine technical IT courses with courses in communication and applied English so that \u201cgraduates can communicate the technical aspects of cybersecurity effectively,\u201d von Eschenbach said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n UNT Dallas\u2019 four current schools will transition to three colleges, and the university will create academic departments for the first time, which will be \u201cclustered by fields of study, interdisciplinary programs and meta majors\u201d instead of traditional disciplines. This will allow the university to more quickly build interdisciplinary degree programs that appeal to students and employers, von Eschenbach said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A new pharmacy department, for example, could bring together pharmacology, food science, nutrition and public health. That could open multiple career pathways for students, such as in nutritional pharmacology or as food scientists.\u00a0<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only do students need to be resilient and adaptable in the face of a very complex and fast changing world, but universities do too,\u201d von Eschenbach said in an interview. \u201cSo we need to reexamine who we are and what we do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.<\/p>\n The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab\u2019s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warren von Eschenbach, president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, gives his remarks at his investiture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,100449,102,104,103,223,100451,95012,88032,95705,87998,89396,90041,89204,97330,89398,88945],"class_list":["post-275332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-business-personal-finance","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news","tag-news-inspired","tag-news-texas","tag-tp-dallas-fortworth","tag-tp-southern-dallas","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-ed-lab-college-career","tag-tp-ed-lab-school","tag-tp-education-lab","tag-tp-ellis-county","tag-tp-higher-education","tag-tp-oak-cliff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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