University of North Texas

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University of North Texas

Former names	Former name list Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute (1890–1894) North Texas Normal College (1894–1901) North Texas State Normal College (1901–1923) North Texas State Teachers College (1923–1949) North Texas State College (1949–1961) North Texas State University (1961–1988)[1]
Type	Public research university
Established	1890; 134 years ago (1890)
Parent institution	University of North Texas system
Accreditation	SACS[2]
Academic affiliations	URA ORAU Space-grant
Endowment	$340.8 million (2024)[3]
Budget	UNT: $1.0 billion UNTS: $1.6 billion[4]
Chancellor	Michael R. Williams[5]
President	Harrison Keller
Provost	Michael McPherson
Academic staff	3,327[6]
Students	46,940 (fall 2023)[7]
Undergraduates	33,672 (fall 2023)[7]
Postgraduates	13,268 (fall 2023)[7]
Location	Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex , Texas , United States 33°12′35″N 97°9′0″W / 33.20972°N 97.15000°W / 33.20972; -97.15000
Campus	1,063 acres (4.30 km2)[8]
Newspaper	North Texas Daily
Colors	UNT Green   White
Nickname	Mean Green
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FBS – The American
Mascot	Scrappy the Eagle
Website	www.unt.edu

The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. UNT's main campus is in Denton, Texas, and it also has a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas. It offers 114 bachelor's, 97 master's, and 39 doctoral degree programs.^[9] UNT is the flagship member of the University of North Texas System, which includes additional universities in Dallas and Fort Worth. Established in 1890, UNT is one of the largest universities in the United States.^[10]

As of Fall 2023, UNT reached a record enrollment with 46,940 students, making it the largest university in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the third largest university in Texas, following Texas A&M and UT Austin.^[11] The University of North Texas' main campus is located in Denton, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The main campus spans 963 acres, encompassing the academic district north of I-35E, the Eagle Point athletic district south of I-35E, and Discovery Park. UNT also has a branch campus, UNT at Frisco, which covers 100 acres in the Dallas suburb of Frisco.

The University of North Texas is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) by the U.S. Department of Education. UNT is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".^[12] It is designated an Emerging Research University (ERU) by the State of Texas. UNT is one of the four Texas universities supported by the Texas University Fund (TUF), which began with an initial funding of $3.9 billion and receives an annual allocation of $100 million as a permanent endowment with the goal of elevating these universities to the ranks of the nation's top institutions. ^[13]

The university's athletics teams are the North Texas Mean Green. Its sixteen intercollegiate athletic teams compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. North Texas is a member of the American Athletic Conference. UNT's official school colors are Green and White and its mascot is an Eagle named Scrappy.

The University of North Texas's main campus is situated in Denton, a town with a population of approximately 170,000, in the northern part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. The university is part of the University of North Texas System and has expanded over the last forty-nine years. In 1975, the university acquired and subsequently developed a medical school in Fort Worth.

In 1981, the university spun off its new medical school as its own independent institution under the UNT Board of Regents.^[14] In 2009, the University of North Texas at Dallas became its own independent institution. That same year, the Texas legislature approved the creation of University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, opening in 2014 in Downtown Dallas as part of UNT Dallas. UNT and its three sister institutions are governed by the University of North Texas System, a system established in 1980 by the board of regents and legislatively recognized in 2003 by the 78th Texas Legislature.

In 2004, UNT opened UNT Discovery Park – 300 acres (1.2 km²) – in north Denton, with technology incubator facilities dedicated to science and engineering. In 2011, the College of Visual Arts and Design launched the Design Research Center in downtown Dallas in the Design District.^[15]

UNT has a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas. In 2018, UNT opened Inspire Park. UNT teaches nearly 2,000 students in Collin County each semester at Hall Park, Inspire Park and the Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney.^[16] In 2020, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved UNT building a branch campus to provide upper-level and graduate courses on 100 acres donated by the city of Frisco.

In 1976, the Carnegie Foundation designated North Texas as a "Class 1 Doctorate-Granting Institution." Four decades later, in February 2016, Carnegie elevated North Texas to its top category – Doctorate-Granting Institutions with "highest research activity."^[17]

In 1992, UNT was elected to full membership in the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.^[18][19] an integrated liberal arts curriculum similar to those usually found only in small, private colleges. And, in 2011, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board included UNT as one of eight Emerging Research Institutions in its accountability system.

In 2020, UNT achieved designation from the Department of Education as a Title III & Title V Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) and as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).^[20]

In 2023, the state of Texas established the Texas University Fund (TUF) with the purpose of expanding and supporting research initiatives at four Texas universities, including the University of North Texas, with the goal of elevating them to the ranks of the nation's top universities. The Texas University Fund began with an initial funding of $3.9 billion and receives an annual allocation of $100 million as a permanent endowment.^[21]

Academic rankings
National
Forbes[22]	275
U.S. News & World Report[23]	220 (tie)
Washington Monthly[24]	302
WSJ/College Pulse[25]	249
Global
ARWU[26]	501-600
QS[27]	1001-1200
U.S. News & World Report[28]	679 (tie)

U.S. News & World Report (2022)
Graduate school rankings
Best Business Schools	95
Part-time MBA	68
Best Education Schools	99
Best Engineering Schools	132
Audiology	60
Biological Sciences	267
Chemistry	150
Clinical Psychology	101
Computer Science	139
English	122
Fine Arts	42
History	143
Library and Information Studies	20
Health Librarianship	6
Mathematics	144
Pharmacy	90
Physics	152
Political Science	59
Psychology	162
Public Affairs	67
Homeland Security	10
Local Government Management	8
Public Finance and Budgeting	18
Rehabilitation Counseling	13
Sociology	111
Speech-Language Pathology	109
(1994–1997) (every year that USNWR ranked the category)
Jazz Studies (Music)	1

U.S. News & World Report (2022)
Global Rankings
Chemistry	510
Materials Science	322
Clinical Medicine	735
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology	230
Computer Science	439
Physical Chemistry	347
Education and Education Research	93
Psychiatry/Psychology	351
Engineering	692
Social Sciences and Public Health	359

U.S. News & World Report (2022)
Best online programs
M.B.A.	31
Criminal Justice	27
Graduate Education	4
Graduate Education Administration	15
Bachelor's Programs	65

UNT offers 114 bachelor's, 97 master's, and 39 doctorate degree programs as of 2024. These are organized into 14 colleges and schools. UNT has been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1924.^[29] As of 2020,^[update] the university was home to 37 research centers and institutes.^[30][31]

UNT reached a record enrollment of 46,940 in the fall of 2023. It is the largest university in Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and third largest public university in the state of Texas. For the 2022 academic year, the university awarded 12,352 ^[32] degrees. UNT awarded 315 Ph.D. degrees in fiscal year 2022.^[33]

As of 2024, student-faculty ratio at UNT is 26:1 and 29.5 percent of its classes consist of fewer than 20 students. The most popular degrees for 2022 graduates are multi/interdisciplinary studies, psychology, general studies, biological sciences, exercise science, marketing, criminal justice, accounting, education, and finance.^[34] As of 2024, UNT has a student graduation rate^[a] of 60%, compared to the national median 4-year university student graduation rate of 58%.^[35]

The fourteen colleges and schools of UNT:

The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences houses 22 academic departments and programs and five public services (including a psychology clinic and a speech and hearing clinic), and eight student services (of which seven are labs).^[36]

UNT has been offering Bachelor of Science degrees for 107 years, Master of Science degrees (in biology, mathematics, chemistry, and economics) for 89 years, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in several scientific disciplines—including chemistry, biology, and physics—for 60 years. UNT is a sponsoring institution member (Ph.D.-granting) of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a consortium of 105 major research universities that leverage scientific research through partnerships with national laboratories, government agencies, and private industry. It has been a member of the consortium since 1954.^[37]

The College of Business is host to five academic departments: (i) Accounting, (ii) Finance, Insurance, Real Estate and Law, (iii) Information Technology and Decision Sciences, (iv) Marketing, Logistics, and Operations Management (v) Management. It offers seven undergraduate programs, fourteen M.B.A. and master of science programs, and six Ph.D. programs. In Fall 2011, the college moved into a new state-of-the-art Gold LEED certified $70 million facility named the Business Leadership Building. The college is accredited in both business and accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—accreditation for the former stretches back sixty-three years (1961) and the latter, thirty-seven years (1987).^[38]

In 2018, 5,093 students were enrolled as business majors at the undergraduate level.^[39]

The College of Education is a legacy of the university's founding as a teachers college one hundred and thirty-four years ago. The college is organized as four departments and one center: (i) Counseling and Higher Education, (ii) Educational Psychology, (iii) Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation, (iv) Teacher Education and Administration, and (v) The Kristin Farmer Autism Center. The college offers 12 bachelor's degrees, 19 master's degrees and 15 doctoral concentrations.^{[citation needed]} As of the 2010–2011 school year, the college certified over 1,147 teachers, the second largest number in the state by a university.^[40] In 1979, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved renaming the "School of Education" to the "College of Education." At that time, the college was the largest in Texas and the Southwest, the largest doctoral program in the state, and the twenty-fifth largest producer of teacher certificates in the United States.^[41] Its prior name, "School of Education," dates back to 1946, when the teachers college outgrew itself and reorganized as six schools and colleges.^[42]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2024)

The College of Engineering was founded in 2003,^[43] and is host to three research centers, one of which being the Net-Centric Software and Systems Center (launched February 24, 2009), a research consortium hosted by UNT and organized as a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (NSF I/UCRC). It is primarily funded by industry members (which as of 2012^[update] consist of 16 corporations) and universities (which as of 2012^[update] consist of 5). The focus is developing computing models for the future—models that go beyond applications with preordained fixed capabilities—models capable of services that are dynamically created, verified, and validated in the field and on the fly.

The College of Information was created in October 2008 by consolidating two existing academic units: Learning Technologies (formerly within the College of Education) and the School of Library and Information Sciences. The School of Library and Information Services was created in 1970 as an outgrowth of its former structure as the Department of Library Services.^[44] The college sponsors three research centers, one being The Texas Center for Digital Knowledge.

The College of Merchandising, Hospitality and Tourism houses the largest merchandising program in the nation and one of the largest hospitality and tourism management programs. The college offers bachelor's degrees with majors in digital retailing, home furnishings merchandising, hospitality management, event design & experience management, and merchandising, and master's degrees in hospitality management, international sustainable tourism and merchandising. It has the nation's first bachelor's in digital retailing and master's in international sustainable tourism. The college was formerly known as the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management.^{[citation needed]}

The College of Music is a comprehensive institution of international rank.^[45][46] Its heritage dates back one hundred and thirty-four years, when North Texas was founded. The college has the largest enrollment of any music institution accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.^[47][48] It has been among the largest music institutions of higher learning in North America since the 1940s. The music library, founded in 1941, has one of the largest music collections in the United States, with over 300,000 volumes of books, periodicals, scores, and approximately 900,000 sound recordings.^[46] North Texas was first in the world to offer a degree in jazz studies.^[46][49] U.S. News & World Report ranked the jazz studies program as the best in the country every year from 1994, when it began ranking graduate jazz programs, to 1997, when it retired the category.^[50] The One O'Clock Lab Band has been nominated for 7 Grammy Awards.

Previously called the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (PACS) and before that the College of Community Service, the college adopted its current name in Fall 2017. The college is organized in seven departments: Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology; Behavior Analysis; Criminal Justice; Emergency Management and Disaster Science (UNT purports that it was the first American university to offer such a program, having done so in 1983^[51]); Public Administration; Rehabilitation and Health Services; and Social Work.^[52]

UNT and Texas Women's University began a joint Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) program in 2017.^[53]

The College of Visual Arts and Design has the 10th largest enrollment of any art and design school accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and the second largest of any that awards doctorates.^[54] The college name changes reflect the curricular expansion of programs. In 1992, what then had been the "Department of Art" within the College of Arts and Sciences, became "School of Visual Arts;" and in 2007, it became the "College of Visual Arts and Design." Art classes began at UNT in 1894, four years after its founding. Master's degrees were initiated in the 1930s and the first Master of Science degree in art was awarded in 1937.^[55] Since 1972, the college has served as curator and custodian of the Texas Fashion Collection^[56] that was started by Stanley Marcus in 1938.

The Honors College offers academic enrichments, including honors seminars and exclusive classes for high-achieving undergraduates. Its objective is to challenge exceptional students at higher levels and to promote leadership. The college is an autonomous collegiate unit on equal footing with the other collegiate units. Academically, it offers no degrees; but its courses are integrated with the baccalaureate programs of the other ten constituent colleges and the journalism school. Graduates are awarded a special medallion.^[57]

Curricular journalism at North Texas dates back to 1945. As a department, Journalism eventually became part of the College of Arts and Sciences. The Graduate Division of Journalism began in the fall of 1970 under the direction of Reginald Conway Westmorland.^[58] In 1999, twelve years after the death of Frank W. Mayborn, its graduate program was renamed the Frank W. Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. On September 1, 2009, the entire program was elevated as its own collegiate unit and named the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. Eight Pulitzer Prizes have been won by five of its alumni, among whom are Bill Moyers and Howard Swindle. Other notable alumni include Samir Husni and Cragg Hines. Since 1969, the news-editorial sequence has been accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; and since 1986, the entire program has been accredited. The school is in its twentieth year as founding host of the annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.^{[citation needed]}

TAMS is a two-year residential early college entrance program that has, since 1987, served exceptionally qualified Texas students who otherwise would be attending high school as juniors and seniors. It was the first of its kind in the nation and, as of 2012^[update], the only in the state and one of five in the nation.^{[citation needed]}

The Toulouse Graduate School, founded seventy-eight years ago,^[59] is the academic custodian and administrator of all graduate programs offered by nine colleges and one school. It maintains records, administers admissions, and serves various roles in recruiting. It was renamed in 1990 in honor of Robert Bartell Toulouse, EdD (1918–2017), who joined in 1948 as a professor in the College of Education, then served dean of the Graduate School from 1954 to 1982. Toulouse, before retiring as professor emeritus, had served other roles at the university, including provost and vice president of academic affairs from 1982 to 1985.^{[citation needed]}

UNT Libraries are made up of four public service points and two remote storage facilities. Willis Library is the main library on campus, housing the business, economics, education, humanities and social sciences collections along with microforms and special areas such as the Music Library, Government Documents, the Digital Library Division, Archives, and the Rare Book and Texana collections. The Media Library in Chilton Hall houses a large collection of audiovisual materials, including films, audiobooks, and video games (see Game Design, above). Video recording equipment and gaming consoles are available for checkout. The Sycamore Library houses the government documents, law, political science, geography and business collections. It also houses the Collaboration and Learning Commons, a place to study in groups, create multi-media projects, and record presentations. The Discovery Park Library supports the College of Engineering and the College of Information, Library Science, and Technologies. It covers multiple areas of engineering, library and information science, and learning technology.

Established in 1977, IELI is the largest intensive English program (IEP) in North Texas,^{[citation needed]} serving international students who wish to learn academic English in preparation for university studies in the United States. IELI is a constituent of UNT International Affairs, an interdisciplinary unit and exponent of globalization in higher education that provides leadership and support of international teaching, research, and study-abroad initiatives. As of July 2015^[update], IELI has been located in Marquis Hall on the UNT Denton campus.

Student body composition as of 2022

Race and ethnicity[60]	Total
White	35%	35
Hispanic	24%	24
Black	14%	14
Asian	8%	8
Other[b]	4%	4
Foreign national	15%	15
Economic diversity
Low-income[c]	40%	40
Affluent[d]	60%	60

All freshmen are required to live on campus to satisfy a residency requirement. 15.5% of students, or 5,620, live in on-campus residence halls. In addition, 37.3%, or 13,494, live within the city of Denton while 4,021, or 11.1% live outside of the city of Denton but within Denton County and 36.1% or 13,043 students live outside of Denton County.^[6]

There are 14 residence halls on the Denton campus. UNT also offers the Residents Engaged in Academic Living (REAL) Communities program. The REAL communities offer students the ability to live with other residents in their major, and allow them to interact with each other and participate in programs that are geared toward their major or discipline.^[61] On August 22, 2011, sixty-year-old Maple Street Hall became the first all-vegan ("Mean Greens") college cafeteria in the country.^[62] The given 14 residence hall at the University of North Texas are : Bruce Hall, Clark Hall, Crumley Hall, Joe Greene Hall, Honors Hall, Kerr Hall, Legends Hall, Maple Hall, Mozart Square, Rawlins Hall, Santa Fe Square, Traditions Hall, Victory Hall, West Hall.

The Pohl Recreation Center is the student recreation center located on the campus of the University of North Texas.^[63]

The social Greek community is made-up of four councils that oversee 42 fraternities and sororities.^[64] Four percent of undergraduate students of both genders are members of social fraternities and sororities.^[65] Fraternities and sororities at North Texas offer students an opportunity to engage in community service, build strong friendships, and develop leadership skills.

North Texas adopted green and white as its official colors during the 1902–1903 school year.^[48] The university also uses black as a tertiary color,^[66] but it is not a "school color".

UNT's mascot, the American eagle, was adopted on February 1, 1922, as a result of a student-faculty council debate and ensuing student election.^[67]

The eagle has had two nicknames, beginning with "Scrappy" in 1950.^[68] The green and white human costumed eagle character, launched in 1963, carried the name "Scrappy" until 1974—during the throes of the Vietnam War—when students adopted the name "Eppy" because it sounded less warlike. Since then, the name has switched back from Eppy to Scrappy; and for the last twenty-nine years, the name "Scrappy" has endured.^{[citation needed]}

The name "Mean Green," now in its fifty-seventh year, was adopted by fans and media in 1966 for a North Texas football defensive squad that finished the season second in the nation against the rush.^[69] That season, Joe Greene,^{[citation needed]} then a sophomore at North Texas, played left defensive tackle on the football team and competed in track and field (shot put). The nickname "Mean Joe Greene" caught-on during his first year with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969 when Pittsburgh fans wrongly assumed that "Mean Green" was derived from a nickname Joe Greene had inherited while at North Texas. The North Texas athletic department, media, and fans loved the novelty of the national use of its nickname, and its association with Joe Greene's surname and university's official school color. By 1968, "Mean Green" was branded on the backs of shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and the cover of the North Texas football brochure.^[70]

Francis Edwin Stroup, EdD (1909–2010),^[71] emerged in 1939—ten years after graduating from North Texas—as the winning composer (lyrics and music) of a university sponsored fight song competition organized by Floyd Graham.^[72] He taught summers at North Texas from 1939 to 1942. The song, "Fight, North Texas," has endured for eighty-five years and the lyrics have changed minimally to reflect the name changes of the university. While serving as an associate professor at the University of Wyoming from 1946 to 1950, Stroup rewrote the lyrics for the chorus to "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," which was adopted in 1961 as the university's fight song. After serving as head of the Physical Education Department at Southern Arkansas University from 1950 to 1959, Stroup became Professor of Physical Education at Northern Illinois University. While there, Stroup rewrote the lyrics to the chorus of Alonzo Neil Annas' (1882–1966) NIU "Loyalty Song" (1942), which was informally adopted in 1961 and officially 1963 as the "Huskie Fight Song."^{[73][74][75][76][77]} Stroup also composed songs for Drake University and the University of Chicago. A collegiate academician who played piano mostly by ear and neither majored nor worked in music, Stroup lived to be 101, a number exceeding the songs he composed by one digit. Stroup was inducted in the Halls of Fame of Northern Illinois University and the University of North Texas (1987).

In 1919, Julia Smith (1905–1989), while a music student, and Charles Kirby Langford (1903–1931), then a third-year letterman on the football team and an outstanding overall athlete, composed "Glory to the Green and White" which was adopted as the school's alma mater in 1922. Smith wrote the music and Langford wrote the lyrics.^[78][79]

The Spirit Bell—a 2,000 lb (910 kg) bell brought from Michigan in 1891—was a curfew bell from 1892 to 1928. The Talons, a spirit and service organization formed in 1960, acquired it in the 1964, mounted it on a wagon, and began the tradition of running it around the football field to rally fans.^[80] It was retired to the University Union in 1982 after it developed a crack. A similar 1,600 lb (730 kg) Spirit Bell is currently in use at games.^[81] A different organization by the name "Talons" was founded in 1926 as the first social fraternity at North Texas.^[82]

On Homecoming Fridays, the Talons light a bonfire built from wooden pallets, typically in a 40-by-40-by-25-foot-height structure. The tradition has endured since the 1930s.^[81]

"Boomer" is a cannon fired by the Talons at football games since the 1970s. It is a 7/8th scale M1841 6 pound, smooth bore muzzleloader, resting on hand-crafted solid oak from the campus. Talon alumni have restored it three times, the most recent being in the fall of 2007, adding a custom limber for transport and equipment.^[81]

The Mean Green Machine, a green and black 1931 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan, is driven by the Talons Motorpool Committee at football games and special events. It was donated by alumnus Rex Cauble in 1974.^[81] In 2012, a team of engineering students installed a NetGain WarP 9 electric engine. As of 2016^[update], the Mean Green Machine has been re-equipped with a modified Model A engine after complications with the electric engine.^[83]

McConnell Tower, the clock tower atop the Hurley Administration Building at the center of campus, is bathed in green light for victories. The clock is depicted on the official class ring with two different times on its faces: 1:00 (for the One O'Clock Lab Band) and 7:00—the curfew initiated in 1892.^[81]

The eagle talon hand signal is formed by curling the thumb and index and middle fingers forward—the ring and pinkie fingers stay closed against the palm.^[81]

"In High Places," is a 22 ft (6.7 m) tall bronze statue of a flying eagle created by Gerald Balciar and dedicated during the university's centennial in 1990.^[81]

KNTU (88.1 FM), licensed and owned by the university and operated by students, has, for fifty-five years,^[84] broadcast to the North Texas region. Jazz has always been a feature of the station; but in 1981, it became the predominant format. KNTU began broadcasting in stereo in 1986 and, on March 22, 1988, increased its broadcasting power from 6,700 watts to 100,000, extending its reach to about a 60-mile radius from its tower located on the Denton campus. KNTU is part of the Mean Green Radio Network, which reaches 10 million listeners. Under the guidance of now-retired faculty member Bill Mercer, several sports broadcasters and radio personalities have emerged from North Texas, including Dave Barnett formerly of ESPN, George Dunham, and Craig Miller.^{[citation needed]}

NTTV, UNT's 24-hour cable television station, features student-produced and student-centric programming.^[85]

North Texas Review is an annual publication of the English Department. It is produced by UNT students and exclusively features works—art, poetry, fiction, non-fiction—by UNT students.^[86]

Student yearbooks through the years have included Cotton-tail (1906), Yucca (1907–1974), Wings (1977–1980), and Aerie (1982–2007). Aerie ceased publication after the 2007 edition, following a trend of the digital age cited by The Economist in 2008.^[87][88][89]

North Texas is the home of American Political Science Review as of July 2012^[update]. The journal moves among national universities every four to six years. UNT will be the first university in the South or Southwest to house the publication.^[90] ISSN 1537-5943

The North Texas Daily is the official university daily newspaper, staffed by students. Print issues are published Tuesday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, and weekly during the summer.^[91] The paper was founded in 1916 as The Campus Chat and adopted its current name in 1971.

As of 2012^[update], North Texas sponsored fifteen athletic teams that compete at the intercollegiate level of NCAA Division I—for men: football; for men and women: basketball, track & field, cross country, and golf; for women only: diving, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, and volleyball. North Texas was a member of Conference USA until it moved to the American Athletic Conference in 2023.^{[citation needed]}

The Mean Green have won 130 conference championships, including 34 since 2000.^{[citation needed]}

In its 111–year history of intercollegiate athletics, the North Texas football team has won 24 conference championships, with the last four occurring from 2001 to 2004 in the Sun Belt Conference.^[92] As of 2014^[update], the team has appeared in thirteen bowl games, winning three including the 1946 Optimist Bowl, the 2002 New Orleans Bowl and the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl. From 1952 to 2010, home football games were played at Fouts Field. In 2011, UNT began playing in newly constructed DATCU Stadium.

The North Texas men's basketball team won the 2006–07 Sun Belt Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.^{[citation needed]} The season marked the beginning of four consecutive seasons of 20-plus wins. North Texas won the Sun Belt Conference championship again during the 2009–10 season, and again advanced to the NCAA Tournament.^{[citation needed]} The 2024–2025 season marks the fifty-second season that the UNT Coliseum has served as the home for Men's basketball.

As of 2020, the University of North Texas had approximately 448,000 living alumni. More than 304,000 reside in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex.^[93]

• Gretchen Bataille, UNT president 2006-2010
• Randall B. Campbell-historian^[94]

In 2008, the university became the first large public university in Texas to sign the "American College and University President's Climate Commitment" (ACUPCC). As of September 2012^[update], twenty-four of the 658 signatory institutions of higher learning were from Texas. Of those twenty-four, five were full undergraduate-graduate institutions (2 private, 3 public). Of those five, UNT was the largest. The objectives include achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 and ensuring that all new university buildings and facilities meet a minimum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating by the U.S. Green Building Council^[95] The university continued to promote sustainability in 2017 when it purchased a year worth of renewable energy credits, to allow the University of North Texas to be powered by renewable energy.^[96]

The Life Science Complex, built in 2011, became UNT's first LEED certified structure, earning a Gold rating. The Complex is a state-of-the-art research facility that houses the university's biochemistry, molecular biology, developmental physiology, genetics and plant sciences programs. The building features four climate-controlled rooftop greenhouses and one of the country's most sophisticated aquatics laboratories with more than 2,500 tanks. Also in 2011, DATCU Stadium, the thirteen-year-old football stadium, became the first newly built sports stadium in the nation to earn a Platinum LEED certification, the highest of four certifications.^[97] The facility features wind turbines, eco-friendly building materials, and native landscape architecture.

The following year, The Princeton Review's Guide to 322 Green Colleges, 2012 Edition, listed UNT for the second consecutive year, citing its top 17-percent ranking among green-compliant universities nationwide under ACUPCC. The article stated that forty percent of the energy on campus is derived from renewable sources, and 43 percent of the buildings have undergone energy retrofits. The campus has posted strong numbers in recycling: since 2009, the university has recycled nearly 1,000 tons of waste materials. UNT offers graduate degrees in Environmental Science and Public Administration and Management.^[98]

• The Portal to Texas History is an undertaking of the North Texas Libraries Digital Projects Unit. OCLC 63174714
• Texas State Historical Association, housed on the Denton campus as of 2008^[update], administers its website and distributes its Handbook of Texas Online. The association had previously been at the University of Texas at Austin since its founding in 1897.^[99] ISSN 1558-9560
• UNT Research Magazine Archived July 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine is an annual digital magazine. It was founded as ReSource (with various subtitles) in 1992^[100] and adopted its current name in 2006. OCLC 14185262, 22547873

• American Literary Review is a national magazine of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by writers at all stages in their careers. It was founded in 1990. The Review is largely student run, with faculty editorial oversight. In the fall of 2013, the Review become exclusively an online digital publication. ISSN 1051-5062
• Environmental Ethics is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the study of philosophical aspects of environmental problems. It was established in 1979.
• University of North Texas Press, founded in 1987, is a relatively young albeit prolific book publisher with more than 300 titles in print (as of 2012^[update]).

• Official website
• North Texas Athletics website
• University of North Texas on LocalWiki