University of North Texas System

History

The UNT Regents initially created the system in 1980 to optimize management with the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, which, 5 years earlier (September 1, 1975) became part of UNT by way of merger. As a reflection of growth, the UNT System was formalized in 2003 by the 78th Texas Legislature.

University of North Texas

The University of North Texas, the System's flagship institution, a four-year general education university in Denton, Texas.

University of North Texas Health Science Center

The University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) is a graduate-level institution which includes the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM), the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Public Health, the School of Health Professions, and the UNT System College of Pharmacy.

University of North Texas at Dallas

The University of North Texas at Dallas (formerly known as the System Center and UNT Dallas Campus) is a university established as a branch campus of the University of North Texas in 2000. In April 2009, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board certified this enrollment and granted UNT Dallas status as an independent general academic institution. Now, the freestanding school is known as the University of North Texas at Dallas, the first public university within Dallas city limits. Freshmen and sophomores were admitted for the first time in the fall of 2010. Initially operated as a unit within the UNT System, the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law was founded in the fall of 2014, and was realigned within UNT Dallas on September 1, 2015.

Board of Regents

The system is governed by the University of North Texas Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by the governor to serve six-year terms. The system added its first student regent — a one-year appointment that does not carry voting rights — in February 2006.

Current regents, Governor Rick Perry appointees

Student member

Chancellors

1980–1981: Frank Vandiver was appointed President and Chancellor July 1980, making him UNT's eleventh president and first chancellor. He resigned August 27, 1981, to accept the presidency of Texas A&M University. The Chancellor's post, at that time, oversaw the University of North Texas and University of North Texas Health Science Center. The position for a Chancellor was created by the UNT Board of Regents in 1980 and the system was formalized in 2003 by the 78th Texas Legislature. Vandiver's thirteen-month tenure in the dual role as president and chancellor is the shortest of either in the one hundred and twenty-six-year history of UNT.

1982–2002: Alfred Hurley was appointed president and chancellor on February 1, 1982, making him UNT's twelfth president and second chancellor. He stepped down as president of UNT in October 2000 to become the system's first full-time chancellor. Hurley stepped down as Chancellor on August 31, 2002. He is currently Emeritus Chancellor. Hurley had previously served 30 years in the U.S. Air Force, where, from 1966 to 1980, he headed the History Department at the Air Force Academy and served as chairman of its Humanities Division.

His tenures as president, eighteen years, and chancellor, twenty years, are the longest of either position in the histories of UNT and the UNT System. In August 2002, the Regents renamed UNT Administration Building — currently sixty years old — in honor of Alfred F. and Johanna H. Hurley.