The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), in a move that is being seen as a potentially important step in the continuing development of the North Texas economy, has broken ground for a 180,000-square-foot building that will serve as home to the university’s rapidly growing School of Management. At present, School of Management classrooms and faculty offices are spread over five buildings on the UTD campus.

The four-story structure, expected to be completed by the summer of 2003, will house classrooms with state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, wireless connectivity, video-conferencing facilities, a computer lab, faculty offices, meeting rooms and an executive education center. To be located on the UTD campus at the southeast corner of University Parkway and Drive A, the new building also will contain facilities that the School of Management’s alumni and corporate supporters can use to hold events and seminars.

Jerry Hoag, senior adviser of the management consulting firm A. T. Kearney, Inc., and chairman of the UTD School of Management Advisory Council, said the new building would provide a state-of-the-art management education facility in which to train the region’s workforce. “This new management building will be a key driver in the continued development of Dallas as a leading global economic center,” he predicted.

The School of Management, which is the largest of UTD’s seven schools, has undergone rapid growth in the last several years. This year’s enrollment of 4,329 represents a 19.4 percent increase over a year ago and a 50 percent increase over the last three years. Meanwhile, the school’s full-time faculty has grown by more than 60 percent over the last five years to a total of 84.

School of Management Dean Dr. Hasan Pirkul said that at present there are not enough classrooms and offices on campus to keep up with his school’s dramatic growth. “Construction of the new building is critical to serve the burgeoning growth of our school and the continued development and quality of our programs. We’ve gotten to the point where we simply must have new facilities to operate at the world-class level to which we aspire,” Pirkul said.

The estimated cost of construction of the new facility is $38 million. In the fall of 2000, the University of Texas System Board of Regents allocated $30 million for the project and asked UTD to raise the remaining $8 million. To date, Phase I of the fundraising drive has raised $4.3 million toward that goal. Gifts have come from both individual contributors and corporations.

UTD President Dr. Franklyn Jenifer noted that the fundraising for the building was at the halfway point. “Reaching our Phase I goals in this economic climate is significant, and we are confident that Phase II of our fundraising efforts will be equally successful,” he said. “Now that we are at the halfway point, our strategy is to reach out to alumni and other corporate friends for commitments that will enable the attainment of the construction funding goal.”