Denton Record-Chronicle presents UNT: 125 YEARS | 1890-2015
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“GLORY TO THE GREEN AND WHITE,” BY STUDENTS JULIA SMITH AND CHARLES LANGFORD, BECAME THE ALMA MATER IN 1922, AND STUDENTS CHOSE THE EAGLE AS THE SCHOOL’S MASCOT.
Tier One
UNT in pursuit of top status By Jenna Duncan Staff Writer
For years, the University of North Texas has chased after the elusive title of “Tier One university.” This can mean a lot of things: breaking into U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 university list, being labeled a very high-activity research university or just spending more than $100 million annually on research. Pretty much everything UNT President Neal Smatresk is working on relates to achieving the elusive Tier One status. Projects in the works include increasing funding for research and faculty, improving retention and bringing in more doctoral students. As the university continues its strategic planning process, looking at what the community wants UNT to be like in 20 years, Smatresk said each stakeholder has to think about how they can help improve the institution to compete with the likes of the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Rice University, Texas’ Tier One institutions.
Aaron Schad, a research scientist with UNT, holds up a milkweed pod before a dig in Dallas’ Great Trinity Forest last year. Dallas Morning News file photo
“What we need to do now is to say to faculty: What are we going to do to close the gaps? How will all of our departments contribute to this goal? And to the staff, we need to say: How will each of your support units contribute to the goals?” he said. “What can you do personally to commit to being a Tier One institution? To the students, we need to say: How can we further
enhance your education and give you incredible pride in this place? How we do we build a sense of community so you’re a happy alum, and we have the same zealous support that UT, A&M and even Texas Tech alums have?” However, Victor Borden, the project director of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, said there are
several colleges that are considered among the best in the country, but aren’t in the top class of Carnegie Classifications’ “very high” research activity. Currently, UNT is in the next category as having high research activity. Borden said the Carnegie Classification is “value neutral,” rather than a typical ranking that rates some schools as superior to others. Instead the classifications represent diversity between university programs. “We do not intend to suggest that any category is ‘higher’ than another,” Borden said. To determine the level of research activity, the classifications take into account factors such as the school’s amount of federal research funding, its number of non-faculty researchers with doctorates, and the distribution of doctoral degrees the school grants, Borden said. “It’s very hard to predict where the line will fall that distinguishes ‘high’ from ‘very high,’ but that is what will determine their fate,” he said. Some things have already changed to
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