[Dr. Calvin D. Jamison] Welcome to the official post-COVID dedication and ribbon-cutting
for the Sciences Building and Phase Three of the Campus Landscape Engagement Project.
I'm Calvin Jamison. I'm the vice president for Facilities & Economic Development
at THE University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson.
It is my honor to open this celebration with the introduction of our special guests.
I'd like to first acknowledge our stage party: President Richard Benson,
[applause]
UT System Regent Christina Melton Crain [more applause]
City of Richardson Mayor Pro Tem Arafin Shamsul,
Provost Ingham Musselman,
Dr. David Hyndman Dean of Natural Sciences & Mathematics,
and Natural Sciences & Mathematics undergraduate and Student Government representative, Alison Spadaro.
In addition, I'd like to recognize representatives from the City of Richardson,
including City Manager Don Magner,
Assistant City Manager Charles Goff, Chief Financial Officer Ken Pfeil,
and other officials in attendance from the city.
Give them a round of applause.
Also, our architects and contractors who worked on this project:
Stantec, Linbeck, and Peter Walker & Associates.
The landscape architects, Melanie Vanlandingham of PW...
-- Where's she at? Where's Melanie? There she is-- Melanie from PW Landscape Architects,
Amy Holzle of Stantec,
Amanda Glasey of Linbeck
and my Project Control team of Anthony Calabrese, Brenda Smith, and Hank Welke;
and of course, the team from Facilities who ran the first project:
Not here, but here in the spirit --he's retired-- Doug Tomlinson,
Jeremy Head, and Kelly Kinnard.
Let's give them all a round of applause.
And then the project advocate Bruce Novak,
who worked very diligently on this project as well.
Give them all a round of applause.
And to my fellow VPs that are here, faculty, staff, students, community members:
Thank you all for being a part of
what is really an outstanding opportunity for this university itself.
So ... Amanda ... Raphael ... thank you guys for being here.
To Kyle --all of you-- for stepping in and being part of something very special.
So give them all a round of applause for being part of this special day.
I want to especially thank
--This is a Chamber of Commerce day, without a doubt, with this kind of weather--
and I want to thank the persons who worked behind the scenes to make things happen,
led by Dee Lambert. Where's Dee? Give a round of applause to her and her team,
and the team out of Dean Hyndman's office who worked very diligently to make this work.
In fact, she was so upset about the fact it may rain.
I said, "It doesn't rain on UT Dallas events".
Just for the record. I want to say this: Today marks another milestone in the evolution of UT Dallas.
With more than 33,000 faculty, staff, and students,
over 15 million square feet of new and renovated space
and almost $3 billion of new development occurring throughout the past couple of decades.
We have changed the face of this specific area and indeed the entire campus.
These two projects, the Sciences Building, and the third phase of the Campus Landscape Enhancement Project,
represent the continued support from our UT System leaders,
and the generous $18 million investment from our beloved Margaret McDermott
equated to over $70 million in landscape enhancement.
As you will hear throughout this ceremony,
the construction of this facility behind me
has dramatically enhanced the academic capabilities of the campus,
and the transformation of this street into a new pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare
--as a golf cart passes by--
with landscaping, truly helping enhance the unique beauty of our campus
as we planted more than 8,000 trees
--and yes, we counted them all--
improved the walkability of the campus from the new Silver Line station north of here
and at Northside --better known as "Comet Town"--
to the main core of the campus,
and installed a beautiful bridge over Cottonwood Creek that proudly displays UT Dallas' orange and green
to the brightness of the night sky.
So, it's only fitting that we're here today in true UT Dallas style
dedicating this extraordinary intellectual edifice
and student-friendly landscape
as we continue our extraordinary transformational journey.
At The University of Texas at Dallas, we do it big and we do it right.
So thank you very much for being here.
It now gives me great pleasure to welcome UT Dallas' fifth President, Dr. Richard C. Benson,
to continue the celebration. Dr. Benson.
[applause]
[Dr. Richard C. Benson] Well, thank you, Dr. Jamison, and good afternoon, everyone.
Good afternoon! Yes! Thank you!
I want to extend my own welcome to each of you.
We are especially honored to be joined by Regent Crain,
Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul, and our friends from the city of Richardson.
As you just heard, this is the opportunity to celebrate the work
that was completed in the midst of the pandemic.
And if you've been around UTD for a while,
you know that our campus has gone through some significant changes over the last few years.
So today we officially dedicate the Sciences Building
and the completion of Phase Three of our Campus Landscape Enhancement Project.
The other speakers on the agenda today will tell you even more, in detail,
about how these additions impact our mission at UT Dallas.
But I want to begin with a quick look back to where it all began.
In the 1960's, the founders of Texas Instruments --Eugene McDermott, Eric Johnson, Cecil Green--
embarked on an ambitious experiment to build a community of scholars.
They established the precursor to UT Dallas, the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest,
to conduct fundamental research and provide graduate-level education
in science and mathematics.
Over 2 very busy years, from 1962-64, research divisions were created
in Atmospheric & Space Sciences, Geosciences, Mathematics, Mathematical Physics, and Molecular Sciences.
Those programs formed the core of research and teaching when the Center became UT Dallas,
and until 1970, the campus consisted of only one permanent structure, the Founders Building.
As I note, there was not much in the way of landscaping
--no center mall, no reflecting pools-- and I've seen early photos of the campus
and most of the property was still undeveloped
with little-to-no sidewalks or paved areas,
and as an aside, then everything became paved --still no trees.
So returning to the Sciences Building, one of our newest instructional facilities,
how fitting that some of our longest-standing academic programs have such a terrific modern space.
I'm especially pleased that our Physics Department has a wonderful new home.
It is no secret that UTD aspires to be one of the world's great universities.
We know that we can compete with anyone when it comes to generating impact in research and education.
And now, because of the work that has taken place over the last decade
to transform the look of our campus,
we can hold our own when it comes to the aesthetics of anybody's campus.
And much of the credit goes to the visionary Margaret McDermott,
who's great dream for UT Dallas was to create an an inviting environment
in which we could all work, study, and gather.
Phase Three of the Campus Landscape Enhancement Plan is the latest fulfillment of her great dream.
So on behalf of our students, faculty, and staff,
let me express our gratitude to the late Margaret McDermott, our greatest champion.
I also want to thank the UT System Board of Regents for making this new building possible,
as well as our generous donors who have supported the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics.
We are fortunate to be a part of The University of Texas System,
and to be guided by the leadership of the System's Board of Regents,
and in particular, is my great honor now
to welcome a member of that important group of advocates, Regent Christina Melton Crain.
[applause]
[Christina Melton Crain] Thank you, Dr. Benson on behalf of The University of Texas Board of Regents.
I am delighted to be here to mark this really special occasion
--and what a beautiful day to do this.
As both Dr. Benson and Dr. Jamison have said, UT Dallas has experienced significant growth
and changes over the last decade.
The Sciences Building and the third phase of the Campus Enhancement Landscape Plan
were approved by the UT System Board of Regents
to meet the needs of a young university experiencing meteoric growth,
and in addition, the Regents provided permanent university funds amounting to $89 million
for the construction of the Sciences Building.
UT Dallas continues to be an important part of the state's educational landscape.
What happens on this campus is truly making a real difference,
and as a native Dallasite --third generation-- I am thrilled to say that this is in my backyard.
So I really love the fact that I personally can take advantage of this growing campus.
I join with the rest of my UT System Board of Regent colleagues,
as well as other system staff, in expressing excitement
for the future of this great university.
And now, it is my real pleasure to welcome Richardson Mayor Pro Tem Arafin Shamsul to the podium.
[applause]
[Arafin Shamsul] Thank you so much, Christina Crain. Good afternoon.
It's my pleasure to join you to celebrate the cutting of the ribbon for this project today.
Mayor Dubey is out of town and could not be here.
So it's unfortunate and fortunate, because I'm here today.
[laughter]
Dr. Benson, on behalf of the City Council, we would especially like to take this opportunity
to thank you and your team for your continued partnership and leadership in the community.
We very much appreciate the dedication and perseverance of your faculty and staff
who do the daily work that has made UT Dallas the highly-recognized institution it is today.
We know, and you know it, but we cannot let it go without saying that
the Richardson community is so proud to be the home of UT Dallas
and to have you as part of our community.
All of you are part of a tremendous legacy that continues to be built to this day.
That is why, every day, my fellow City Council members and I
are thankful for the University, for your work as part of this team,
and for the students who will make the future of this community.
On behalf of the community and the City Council, congratulations on this project.
It is an addition and enhancement that the students and our community
will enjoy for many years --and I even dare say--- generations to come.
Thank you.
[applause]
I guess I need to introduce the next speaker. So ... Provost Musselman is going to be the next speaker.
[applause]
[Dr. Inga Musselman] Thank you, and welcome everyone.
The Sciences Building has been a smart addition to our campus in two major ways:
The effects on academics are obvious.
For example, the Physics Department used to be in eight different buildings
and now those labs and classrooms are mostly under one L-shaped roof,
adding to the spirit of collaboration that is the trademark of UT Dallas academics,
but not as apparent to the naked eye,
is the energy-efficient lighting and ecologically-friendly materials
that earned this beautiful building LEED Gold status from the US Green Building Council.
The Sciences Building is surrounded by drought-resistant plants and an irrigation system
that combine to reduce water usage by 57%.
More than 22% of the building materials are from recycled content,
including concrete, steel, framing, drywall, and flooring.
LEED, which as many of you know stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,
is considered the premier credentialing system for sustainable construction.
Eight buildings and one parking garage at UT Dallas have earned LEED certification
and the Sciences Building is one of four that have attained Gold status,
which is the second-highest rating.
The others are the Engineering & Computer Science West Building,
the Davidson Gundy Alumni Center, and the Bioengineering and Sciences Building.
But we don't limit our focus to the buildings.
We also put a lot of thought into how the pathways that connect these structures
fit with our Campus Landscape Enhancement Project.
Our location is a perfect example of that commitment.
If you had been here four years ago, you would have been sitting in a well-traveled street.
But when the Sciences Building opened in 2020, This portion of Rutford Ave. was transformed
into a pedestrian promenade.
It makes walking through campus a safer, cleaner, and all-around more pleasant experience.
The Campus Landscape Enhancement Project also has enhanced our academics.
Surveys have shown that students often point to the beauty of a campus
as a deciding factor for choosing UT Dallas.
Academic rankings and prestige are a big draw, of course,
but our environment also has helped spark the dramatic enrollment increase,
and it has been a big part of our story for the last 15 years.
Just like the Sciences Building, it all fits together smartly.
I would now like to invite to the podium Dr. David Hyndman,
Dean of the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics,
to talk about the impact of the building on his school. Dr. Hyndman.
[applause]
[Dr. David Hyndman] Thank you for the introduction, Provost Musselman.
Thank you President Benson, Dr. Jamison, Regent Crain,
and others that are making this all happen today.
I'd also like to put another shout-out to the staff that made this happen.
You may think events like this just happen without a lot of behind-the-scenes work,
but it takes a village to put these on
and I'd really like to thank that group.
Please give them another round of applause.
[applause]
I want to say a few words about this remarkable building.
It's incredibly important to us as the School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics.
It serves as a clear testament of progress within the school,
provides space for students, faculty, and staff,
and also hosts a series of world-class research labs.
And those labs are predominantly operating on research funds.
And one really great piece of news for the school--
In the last year alone, our research grants doubled.
We are already on a very positive trajectory, but that's a pretty remarkable change,
and Physics has been one of the key contributors to that,
Especially, we have a Center for Space Sciences,
and that Center for Space Sciences has been involved in a huge number of NASA missions through time.
Actually, every early mission that went into space
had something that was manufactured here,
including the mission to the moon, and the Mars Rover.
--so it was remarkable science, that as was stated earlier,
we're a founding school of UT Dallas,
and $27 million of grants in the Physics Department in the last five years
--and that doesn't even count a new $40 million grant for this Geospace Dynamics Constellation.
This Constellation --we have a significant impact on building parts for this--
based on the expertise we have in heliospherics.
And what this will do is, it's going to study the upper atmosphere,
which protects all of us from radiation from the sun
--so incredibly important mission.
So if you go around and you tour through the building at all,
you'll see some things that look a little bit odd, some old instrumentation.
--these are actually prototypes of things that were sent to space.
So we still have some of those available to see.
We also have a world-class center in Quantum Information Science
and that team got a $5 million grant to expand this realm,
and actually hire new faculty, and get them set up here on campus.
Some of the other new things on campus:
We're hosting a sustainability initiative.
We have a new department name for what was Geoscience.
It's now Sustainable Earth System Science --just in January that went through.
And with that, we have new interdisciplinary hires
that are really going to be here to help solve some of the Earth's emerging problems.
We're also creating some new curricula with that
and hope to really grow the number of students in that important area.
Another area that we're growing right now is, we're working on a new Biomedical Sciences degree program.
It's not going to be a department.
We're actually almost ready to actually push that new degree program through the system,
and so hopefully next year that'll be up and running.
We look at the number of students that come for various departments here;
A lot of them are Pre-Med, Pre-Dental, and Pre-Professional,
so this degree program is really designed to fit their needs and interests.
So, let me come back to the building for a minute.
What this does is it opens up research and student opportunities,
to not just our students, but we teach things to students from all across campus.
So having them come and experience the latest science initiatives,
in this building, is a wonderful thing.
It also provides a hub to navigate our promising future in STEMM.
Of course, we are a STEMM university with M being Management --the extra M.
I want to thank you all again for coming today.
And with that, I'd like to hand it off to our wonderful student speaker, Alison Spadaro.
[applause]
[Alison Spadaro] Thank you, Dean Hyndman. Good afternoon, everyone.
I'm honored to share a student's perspective
on the completion of the Sciences Building and the Campus Landscape Enhancement Project.
When I first started at UTD as a freshman, the world was under quarantine.
I was on campus, but none of my classes were in person.
For my first year, and a good portion of my second,
life on campus was a pretty isolating experience,
as it was for much of the rest of the world.
That's why spaces like the Sciences Building right around us,
and the beautifully enhanced landscape all around us, are so important.
For us, this is more than just a beautiful building.
The Sciences Building gives students a glimpse into the future of what's to come on campus.
It's modern design shows that UTD is a forward-thinking university of the future
that will continue to push boundaries for years to come.
It also provides many opportunities for students to connect with one another
and form bonds that'll last for the rest of their lives.
For me, that connection comes from gathering with friends and fellow Physics students in the physics lounge.
There, professors, graduate students, and undergraduates frequent the space
--always groups of people chatting, or working on school work, or making their morning coffee.
It's a space where students can work together to understand their coursework,
where they can ask questions freely and learn from their peers.
At universities like this, spaces like these are absolutely vital.
My fellow Natural Sciences & Mathematics students also love the additional spaces in the Sciences Building
to meet and study, as well as the lab spaces where we can immerse ourselves in our research.
Even students who aren't in STEMM like to spend time over here.
They come for the giant staircase that's right behind, us inside the building,
as well as the food options in the market
--which I'll definitely say has saved my life in between back-to-back classes--
as well as the courtyard right over there.
Now, I'm graduating this year, but this building makes me hopeful for the future.
Shared spaces like these build community and help students form social bonds
that are absolutely essential to their success.
I'd like to thank all the administration and all other campus leaders
who championed this facility and supported us with this amazing building.
And now, I'm pleased to welcome back to the podium
Vice President for Facilities & Economic Development, Dr. Calvin Jamison.
[applause]
[Dr. Calvin D. Jamison] Thank you so much, Alison.
I'm going to ask you guys to indulge us
because we have the time now to officially cut the ribbon --on two projects.
The logistics are important here, and as my colleagues know,
we want to make sure we get it done pretty quickly, but also seamlessly, if we can.
So after the stage party goes over
--we're going to cut the ribbon on the Sciences Building first--
have a couple of photos over there as well,
followed by colleagues from the City of Richardson,
and then members of the Advisory Board for Natural Sciences, and then the science team.
Then we're going to shift quickly to the Landscape Enhancement, taking shots there as well,
and then we're going to celebrate with some refreshments afterwards.
So let me just say simply this:
It has been an absolute pleasure for our team to work on a project like this.
The downside of the pandemic: no one's on campus when we work through it;
the good side of the pandemic: we got a lot done in a very short period of time,
and it made things work, and we were able to plant more trees.
And as many of you know, I always say this:
I'm from Virginia, where we have real trees,
so when we plant these shrubs here in Texas, eventually they will be real trees,
but in the meantime we create an atmosphere that people can be proud of.
So to all of you, I say simply this: We get one opportunity in life to really do something special,
and on this particular campus, which is so very, very young,
we've had an opportunity to create tradition and culture every day,
and it comes from creating a positive experience for our faculty, staff, and students.
So with that in mind, I'll ask that the members of our stage party,
if we could move over to the ribbon-cutting area here, we're going to cut the ribbon.
and then, Dee, you're going to come and tell who the next one's going to be,
and then everybody get prepared to move forward.
--again, two ribbon-cuttings--
We're going to work through it pretty quickly,
so bear with us, and then we'll have a little fun.
Thank you. [applause]