Office of the President

From the President

This report recaps a year of progress and good news. Reviewing it caused me to reflect on not only the past year, but all of those since it became my good fortune to begin this journey with The University of Texas at Dallas and so many of you.

Since 2005, we've invested more than $600 million in new buildings and infrastructure. For each $1 million in construction, we've planted at least nine new trees. These two metrics offer quick gauges of the magnitude of the sweeping, ongoing effort underway to bring our physical setting to a level of quality that matches the work of our students, faculty and staff.

In this same seven-year period, we increased enrollment by 35 percent, the four-year graduation rate by 50 percent, annual research expenditures and doctoral degree production by 300 percent, and annual fund raising by 500 percent. We have appeared in the top tier of nationally conducted rankings for the past two years, and remain a perennial member of listings for best values in college education.

Just as, or more importantly, this emphasis on growth was accompanied by further improvement in the quality of UT Dallas. The student body has grown dramatically, and at the same time, our students' level of achievement was not only sustained, but actually increased. The average SAT score of our entering freshman class this past fall was 1248, up slightly from last year. We recruited our largest class of National Merit Scholars ever, a record 53—more than all other UT System institutions combined, and more than Caltech (36), Washington (14), UCLA (34), Virginia (37), and Michigan (44).

We are recruiting extraordinary faculty who put students at the center of their work in both the classroom and in research. We believe research is part of teaching, and we know that teaching is most effective when both faculty and students are engaged in the quest for new knowledge.

The Dallas/Fort Worth region's pathway to prosperity is through innovation. We're helping to carry the region forward by realizing the vision of our founders to create the "MIT of the Southwest," and doing it faster than even I could hope. To you, our supporters, I say thank you for this most recent year of progress, and keep your eye on us—we expect more great news in 2012.

David E. Daniel