Measuring a Transformation: Philanthropic Support Drives Progress
By: Daniel Steele | November 22, 2023
New Dimensions: The Campaign for UT Dallas launched in May 2020 with an ambitious $750 million goal. Achieving this goal will have a transformational effect on UT Dallas, expanding the University’s ability to attract and retain the best students, empowering research that changes lives, driving economic development and jump-starting a new era of cultural expansion in North Texas.
With the New Dimensions campaign fully underway, UT Dallas just concluded its most successful fundraising year in history, raising more than $96 million during fiscal year 2023. This milestone achievement helped push the campaign past its halfway mark, with nearly $400 million raised so far.
Signs of the campaign’s impact can be seen on campus and throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, as new facilities dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship and the arts allow UT Dallas to redefine how the world lives, works and learns. The formation of the University’s newest school, the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, has united the traditional liberal and creative arts with UT Dallas’ own distinctive approach to imaginative exploration, building a unique home for those interested in advancing fundamental questions of human nature to the frontiers of knowledge and new media. Expanded financial aid and student success programs have opened doors of opportunity to all deserving students, broadening the pipeline of talent that runs through UT Dallas to the region’s workforce.
These advancements were possible only with the support of University donors and friends. Substantial gifts from longtime partners have combined with investments from newly forged relationships around the world to generate the incredible impact made so far during the New Dimensions campaign. As UT Dallas prepares to push toward the campaign’s completion, leaders celebrate the progress our supporters have made to date and recognize all those who have joined the University’s mission for the first time.
“As the large, high-academic quality, research institution for our area of Texas, UT Dallas is one of the primary drivers of the growth and success of all North Texas,” said Ron Nash MS’79, co-chair of the New Dimensions campaign. “We had to get that story out and enlist new supporters who shared our vision of accelerating the value that UT Dallas brings to our area. It’s been very rewarding to see people and groups new to UT Dallas buying into that vision of a more successful North Texas and are supporting UT Dallas with great enthusiasm.”
Nash and campaign co-chair, John Olajide BS’04, are leading the charge to spread the word about UT Dallas and encourage community leaders to join forces with the region’s premier public research university. They are also leading the way with their giving, each making significant gifts to the schools from which they graduated at UT Dallas.
Nash and his wife, Susan, recently created the Nash Leader Award in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, a program designed to recognize exceptional students and provide additional resources to accelerate their career development. Olajide established the Axxess Scholarship program in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, the largest scholarship program for computer science students at UT Dallas.
Building a Cultural Destination for North Texas
A $40 million gift from the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation has named the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology, which emerged from the combination of the School of Arts and Humanities and the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communications in 2022. The Bass Foundation’s gift will create new scholarships, expand immersive study experiences for students, increase faculty support and advance dynamic creative practices that combine UT Dallas’ high-tech sensibility with traditional art forms.
“The impact of this gift cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Nils Roemer, Bass School dean and the Arts, Humanities, and Technology Distinguished University Chair. “It will strengthen the foundation of our scholarships, research and programming and change the trajectory of our school. It multiplies opportunities for students, faculty and communities to engage in essential experiences of arts, humanities and emerging technologies.”
Spearheaded by a $32 million commitment from the O’Donnell Foundation, the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum is a significant component of the New Dimensions campaign. Located on 12 acres of UT Dallas’ Richardson campus, the first phase of the O’Donnell Athenaeum is set to open in 2024, with several museums, community event spaces and unique study rooms to enhance academic offerings in the arts and humanities. Future phases of the project will include a performing arts complex, an additional museum and a dedicated parking structure, and the North Texas community will have the opportunity to enjoy the cultural resources of a global university in their backyard.
The O’Donnell Athenaeum’s museums will be anchored by a second location of the Crow Museum of Asian Art, gifted to UT Dallas by the Trammell and Margaret Crow family along with $25.45 million of support funding in 2019. UT Dallas recently announced a landmark partnership to exhibit significant works on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art in the O’Donnell Athenaeum, expanding the reach of Dallas’ existing cultural resources to the region’s fastest-growing population center.
Innovating for a Better Tomorrow
UT Dallas was founded to support industry and innovation in North Texas. Fifty years on, the University is an economic engine for the region, generating over $2.9 billion in impact through research, commercialization and community investment, according to the Perryman Group.
During the New Dimensions campaign, $15 million from Texas Instruments catalyzed a joint venture between UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center that is bringing together scientists, medical professionals and patients to spur biotechnology development in Dallas. The Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building opened this fall on the UT Southwestern campus, integrating advancements in biomedical engineering with artificial intelligence, molecular imaging, robotics, genetic engineering and other fields to accelerate medical technology advancements and train student researchers. This project is funded in part by a $2 million investment from the Eugene McDermott Foundation and by Lyda Hill Philanthropies through a $1 million grant for the building’s construction and a further $250,000 grant establishing the Lyda Hill Biomedical Innovation Fund, which will stimulate collaborative research and drive high-impact translation in the facility.
Several governmental and corporate partnerships are fueling UT Dallas’ mission to transform lives through research and education. Five UT Dallas applied research centers have opened in the Richardson Innovation Quarter focusing on emerging technologies in the areas of machine learning, imaging and surgical innovation, intelligent sensor design and transportation infrastructure. A gift from Amazon Robotics is also developing new functional safety coursework in the Department of Systems Engineering to address a critical workforce need as autonomous robotics find expanded use in the global economy.
“I want to thank UTD for extending its Venture Development Center to this site,” said then-Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker at the opening of the Richardson IQ. “It’s really neat that a university has the vision to put some of their best and brightest, some of their more advanced project capabilities and some of their business development groups right where the industry actually is. They’re going to be contributing not just to Richardson’s success, but all of North Texas.”
At UT Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth, researchers and clinicians are working to revolutionize methods for studying the brain, assessing its performance and improving healthy outcomes for patients. A transformative gift from Sammons Enterprises helped the center raise over 60% of its $50 million campaign goal and named the state-of-the-art Sammons BrainHealth Imaging Center.
Accessing Opportunity Through Education
In fall 2022, UT Dallas enrolled a record 31,750 students. Two-thirds of the University’s graduates choose to reside and work in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex after graduation, making UT Dallas a significant source of professional talent for the region.
Many of these talented students require significant assistance to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by higher education. Over 42% of bachelor’s degrees at the University are awarded to economically disadvantaged students, and more than two-thirds of undergraduates receive some form of financial aid. As UT Dallas grows to educate a larger percentage of local talent, donors are making sure students have the resources they need to succeed.
Annual scholarship support from State Farm has funded nearly 250 scholarships in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. A $3 million commitment from Herb and Donna Weitzman created the Herbert D. Weitzman Institute for Real Estate, providing significant financial assistance to students studying real estate in the Jindal School.
Toyota USA Foundation chose to extend UT Dallas’ impact across the Dallas Independent School District by funding scholarships for students training to become science, technology, engineering and math teachers in the area.
In addition to scholarship support, partners like the Goldman Sachs, American Airlines, Mbroh Engineering, HumCap, the Chime Scholars Foundation and the Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation are promoting student success through advisory and mentoring programs like the Academic Bridge Program, Undergraduate Success Scholars and Comet Scholars.
Discover New Dimensions of Excellence with UT Dallas
Gifts like these are building a new UT Dallas, one that embodies new dimensions of excellence across fields of study and human endeavor. With less than half of the campaign’s total left to raise, there is no better time to make your mark on the University’s future.
“We have more work to do to get past our goal, but I cannot over-emphasize how pleased we are with the magnificent support so far from our traditional donors as well as from a large number of important new donors who believe in our mission and our direction,” Nash said.
To make a gift or learn more about the New Dimensions campaign, visit newdimensions.utdallas.edu.
Inspiring Future Leaders
UT Dallas is home to a number of recognition programs for students who boast exceptional academic resumes. Ron Nash MS’79 and his wife, Susan, wanted to do something different when they created the Nash Leader’s Program with a $1 million commitment.
“We wanted to recognize a group of elite students who had significant achievements in two areas — academics and leadership,” Ron Nash said. “We also wanted to give students the incentive at a young age to learn leadership lessons and to develop as leaders through practice.”
By selecting for these dual criteria, the Nash Leader’s Program recognizes students who are most likely to be leaders in their careers after graduation. The program provides participants with access to a robust set of leadership opportunities while enrolled at UT Dallas and a $1,000 academic stipend, along with a roadmap for earning the Nash Leader Award upon graduation. This credential is designed to signal a graduate’s exemplary character and accomplishments as they embark on their professional careers.
“Being a leader is a calling which requires intellect, vision, personal and emotional maturity, stamina, relentlessness, dreams, impeccable ethics and a little luck,” Nash said. “We wanted to give students who are already on this path both a pat on the back for their achievements to date and a challenge to do even more in the future. We are excited about helping the next generation of great leaders which our world needs so desperately.”