The Need For A Dallas-based Research University
The News has an excellent editorial today about the lack of a tier-one research university in Dallas. Please read the whole thing. As a UT graduate, I feel comfortable laying the blame directly at the doorstep of the UT Board of Regents, which has exibited a parochialism completely unsuited to the exigencies of a state with the 8th largest economy in the world. This magazine made its own proposals in 2000. Read “How To Create An Economic Engine for Dallas” here. Read “How To Create A Research University” here. Key paragraph:
Cities without research universities are the Rust Belts of tomorrow. No city that does not have a vibrant intellectual climate that attracts and engages bright minds will be a long-term player on a major scale in the new economy.
13 Comments to “The Need For A Dallas-based Research University”
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Instead of wasting time trying to establish a fourth-rate law school in downtown Dallas, everyone’s focus ought to be on correcting this problem.
SMU has stated in the Centennial Campaign Progress Report that the university will reach a target of $50 million in external research funding by 2015 (the report says the university is currently at $20 million per year).
It won’t match a UT or A&M, but it’s a start.
You can read the report here: http://smu.edu/leadership/plan.asp
Don’t neglect UT-Dallas in Richardson. Cutting edge nanotech work is being done there by some of the brightest in the field. With more support than what the McDermott’s and Texas Instruments (plus it’s share of UT funds), it could further tap into its potential to be a top-flight research university.
It makes you wonder what would have happened if they completed the Super Collider in Waxahachie. BTW, what are they doing with all that now? Undeground go-cart track? Just curious.
This reminds me of when I first moved here, and a friend asked me about Dallas’ intellectual climate given the universities around us. I responded with an uncomfortable pause.
SMU is a CF.
What about installing just a regular ol’,all-the-courses state university that local people can attend without having to move transcripts around like a bunch of refugees? Or a school they can drive to or die the bus to in 20 minutes instead of 90?
Oh, gosh, we forgot that DISD kids can all afford SMU but choose not to go there. Or do you mean they should be deliriously happy with a chance to attend junior college and learn a trade?
Or that single-parent families that can barely afford to send kids to public school should take up a life of crime to send their kids to college?
Yep, Dallas — the place where dumb is encouraged and smart is from somewhere else.
Wick - Thanks for highlighting this issue again. Candidly, though, I don’t think a real solution to this issue is going to emerge unless someone can show that our state needs another such institution. Until then, it’ll just be viewed as an item on Dallas’s wish list.
A world class research institution would just distract Dallas, and the rest of the state for that matter, from reaching its real goal: turning Texas into a series of truck stops and toll roads. I mean really, if we were to increase the local IQ around here by luring researchers and scientist, who would vote for stupid toll roads so companies like Allen Group can get defective Chinese toys to the shelves at Walmart WITHOUT having to wait in downtown mix-master traffic.
Wick, the problem is Dallas’ parochialism.
Had Dallas supported UTA as the region’s Tier One university back before UTD was approved — back when UTA was the second largest university in the system — then DFW would have a great research center by now.
But no. Dallas didn’t support UTA because it wasn’t near north Dallas.
So the taxpayers of Texas had to build another entire university, and Arlington had to flirt with switching to the A&M system to leverage more UT support, and now we have two half-grrat universities instead of one great one.
UT Arlington is one of the state’s fastest advancing up-and-coming research universities. To further this, the university will begin construction on $170 million of new engineering and science research facilities this year alone. UT Arlington should be brought up to Tier 1 status as quickly as possible. In fact, with the largest population of any region in the state, DFW should have TWO major research universities. UT Arlington and Dallas are easily the region’s university research leaders; north Texas would do better to cooperate on the politics and build BOTH.
How does UT-Southwestern fit into this picture? They have world-class research in several areas - how many Nobel prize winners work there? I’d leverage that, or at least make sure not to build something competing in biological or medical research.
UT-Southwestern should be included, as should the underrated UT-Dallas. No one I knew went to UT-Dallas, as no suburban kid I know wants to go to a commuter school without a football team. However, the classes are excellent. They do good research. And the caliber of students and intensity of courses are significantly greater than at SMU.
Also, there are some gems in the Dallas County Community College District. The professors are there to teach, not to do research. Richland in NE Dallas and Northlake in Irving have great, challenging science courses at 1/10 the cost of a public four-year and 1/40 the cost of a private school.