University of Texas at Dallas

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Table of Contents

Tours

1. Self-Guided Campus Tour

   Welcome to UT Dallas!

   Stops

   1. Visitor Center Building

      The first stop on our tour is the Visitor Center and University Bookstore (VCB) — a campus hub that also features a coffee shop, the UT Dallas Tech Store, Copy Center and an atrium where many events and gatherings are hosted. It’s connected to the Activity Center, the main fitness and wellness facility on campus. We'll learn more about the Activity Center later.

       

   2. The Reflecting Pools

      You are standing at the top of the circle where University Parkway and Loop Road meet on the south side of campus. From this vantage point looking north, you can see our reflecting pools. These pools go through the Margaret McDermott Mall and Margaret McDermott Trellis Plaza.

       

      In 2010, UT Dallas began a campus beautification project. We are thankful for the generous donation of $30 million by Margaret McDermott. Because of this generosity, UT Dallas is ranked as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country! We have more than 6,800 trees and 65 different species on campus. In 2017, UT Dallas received the Tree Campus USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation. Additionally, we’ve added or renovated over 3.5 million square feet of space on campus. That’s a lot of upgrades!

       

   3. Naveen Jindal School of Management Building

      On the southeast corner of the Margaret McDermott Mall is the Naveen Jindal School of Management (JSOM). JSOM boasts several nationally ranked academic programs and includes a Career Management Center as well as a Finance Trading Lab. Students enjoy the perks of a recently renovated building that include a coffee shop and Jason’s Deli.
      
      In the Jindal courtyard, you’ll find a polished stainless steel owl named Wise, by sculptor Brad Oldham. Each year the JSOM Dean’s Council honors students, faculty and staff by awarding an OWLIE (Outstanding Worthy Leaders Involved Exceptionally) statuette.

       

   4. The Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building

      Our next stop is The Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building (ATEC), which is home to the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication. Our animation, games, design and production, and critical media studies programs are located here. The ATEC building also houses a motion capture lab, anechoic sound chamber, floating room and the largest auditorium on campus that seats 1,200. Future-making at its finest!

       

   5. Chess Plaza and the Spirit Rocks

      Between ATEC to the east and our Student Services Building to the west is Chess Plaza. Chess is more than a game here at UT Dallas — it’s a conversation starter that welcomes people from the community to our campus and encourages international exchange. Our chess team members represent our global community, united by the universal language of “checkmate.” With 10 Pan American Intercollegiate Championships, our team is a perennial powerhouse.

       

      On the ground at Chess Plaza, you’ll notice that there are four chess boards. Several times a year, our chess team gathers together and takes on all challengers to games of chess, using giant chess pieces. Beyond the games, Chess Plaza and the Margaret McDermott Mall host Commencement, Homecoming and Weeks of Welcome activities.

       

      Turning southwest across from the Student Services Building and in front of the Activity Center, you'll find three large painted rocks called the UT Dallas Spirit Rocks where students are free to paint messages. Layered with years of messages of remembrances, special holidays and events — the Spirit Rocks represent all things near and dear to UT Dallas!

       

       

   6. Student Services Building

      Our Student Services Building (SSB) serves as your one-stop-shop during your time here at UT Dallas. It houses our Admissions, Registrar, Financial Aid, Bursar and Student Wellness offices, among others.

       

      The Multicultural Center hosts a variety of programs to celebrate a vast array of cultures and promote diversity and inclusion in the UT Dallas community. The Galerstein Gender Center is a campus resource that fosters a safe and inclusive environment by advocating for gender equity and diversity through leadership development, education, programs and services.

       

      The SSB also houses our University Career Center. Along with JSOM’s Career Management Center and ECS Industrial Practice Program, the Career Center provides support and career education to students and alumni, preparing them to successfully manage their careers throughout their lifetimes.

       

      One unique feature is its status as the first LEED Platinum Certified facility in the UT System — the highest award given by the U.S. Green Building Council. We are continually working toward a better, more sustainable campus.

       

   7. Student Union Building

      Just north of the Student Services Building, you’ll find our Student Union (SU). The SU is home to dining options, the offices of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Student Life, Student Government, Student Media and the Reflection Room.

      
      Whether you’re hungry or need a getaway from your studies, you’ll find it here. You can enjoy a bite to eat at our food court or quench your thirst at the largest indoor Starbucks that you’ll find on a college campus. Or, are you a gamer searching for our top-ranked champion Esports team? Look no further than our Student Union.

       

       

   8. Margaret McDermott Trellis Plaza and Eugene McDermott Library

      Exiting the Student Union, you'll stand by the Plinth in the Margaret McDermott Trellis Plaza looking down the Margaret McDermott Mall. Trellis Plaza is a central location on our campus and a major hang out for our students. Student events and outdoor concerts are held here throughout the year.

       

      Looking east and just north of the ATEC building is the Eugene McDermott Library, which houses more than 3 million books available for both physical and digital distribution. Inside this building, you’ll find student resources such as Peer-Led Team Learning, Supplemental Instruction, as well as our writing, communications and math labs.

   9. Green Center

      Across from Founders Building and Texas Instruments Plaza is the Cecil and Ida Green Center, home of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College. The National Merit Scholars Program, the Terry Foundation Scholars Program, and the Collegium V Honors Program are supported here, hosting academic, social and cultural events for students to pursue intellectual excellence and curiosity across the disciplines.

      
      The Office of Distinguished Scholarships provides information, guidance, and mentoring to students applying for nationally competitive scholarship and fellowship programs. The Archer Program combines Washington, D.C., internship experience with classroom instruction for an intensive semester of political and policy education. The Texas Legislative Internship Program provides opportunities for individuals to intern with state legislators during the spring semester while the legislature is in session on odd-numbered years. The UT Dallas Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi is the local chapter of the nation's oldest, largest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Undergraduate and graduate students are inducted to Phi Kappa Phi each year.

       

   10. Cecil H. Green Hall

       The School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS) is housed in Green Hall.  EPPS students are leaders in research, addressing critical social, political and economic issues. The interdisciplinary research, study, and career preparation cover topics including risk management, economic performance, political violence, electoral behavior, health care, democratization, social inequality, international trade and conflict resolution.

        

       On the fourth floor of Green Hall, you’ll find a portion of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS). BBS brings together innovative research, student training and community outreach in a climate that fosters collaboration and learning. With 13 degree programs and four major research centers, faculty and students cover topics as diverse as how the brain changes through experience to what factors contribute to optimal child development, from how infants recognize their parents to how older individuals can maintain their cognitive skills. The School’s audiology program is regularly ranked among the top three in the nation, and the faculty research and clinical work is performed in specialized buildings on campus as well as in facilities adjacent to UT Southwestern near downtown Dallas.

        

   11. Erik Jonsson Academic Center, University Theater, and T.I. Plaza

       Across from Green Hall and connected via skybridge, you will find the Erik Jonsson Academic Center (JO). Housed within JO is the School of Arts and Humanities (A&H). The programs in A&H prepare students for the global, diverse, change-intensive and technologically sophisticated environment of the 21st century by providing an integrated interdisciplinary education that fuses critical with creative thinking, the arts with the humanities, the arts and humanities with other branches of knowledge, and theory with practice.

       
       Walking south, you will pass the University Theatre, home to numerous live music and theater productions by UT Dallas students. Many UT Dallas students bring their creative passions with them and minor in creative arts, or join a production in addition to their major-related studies.

       
       Farther south, you will find beautiful bubbling fountains, green areas and open seating. In 2016, Texas Instruments Plaza (T.I. Plaza) was dedicated at our annual Founders Day celebration that salutes the three founders of UT Dallas — Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson and Eugene McDermott. T.I. Plaza serves as a gathering space on campus to inspire minds, to think boldly and to dream big.

        

   12. Founders Building, Berkner Hall and Science Learning Center

       Walking west up the hill from Trellis Plaza, you will pass our Founders Building (FO) on the right. As the first permanent structure at The University of Texas at Dallas, the Founders Building sits at the heart of the campus. Inside FO, you’ll find our School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NS&M) offering more than 30 undergraduate and graduate programs within its six departments: biological sciences, chemistry and biochemistry, geosciences, mathematical sciences, physics and science/mathematics education. Each program is research-intensive with close cooperation from industry. Additionally you’ll find the Office of Undergraduate Education, supporting pre-law advising, health professions advising and our undergraduate dean’s suite. Dating back to the 1960s, many of the labs in this building were used for NASA projects.

        

       This building also houses a wing known as Founder’s North Building. Founders North holds the large Kusch Auditorium and our UTeach Dallas program. Between Founders and Founders North, you'll find the UTD rock garden, which features 19 large sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rock specimens ranging in weight from 100 pounds to nearly a ton. The oldest rock is a 3.5 billion-year-old gneiss from Wyoming — about three-quarters of the age of the Earth! It is a sample of one of the earliest known rocks in the United States.

       
       Northwest of the Founders Building is where you’ll find the Science Learning Center (SLC). The SLC brings a variety of disciplines together in one space, featuring state-of-the-art classroom lab spaces for chemistry, biology, physics, geosciences and mathematics programs. The building’s tile exterior was inspired by two patterns: atomic emission spectra of gases as well as human DNA (when it is separated in a process called gel electrophoresis). The design of the tile wall incorporates recessed fluorescent lamps covered by lenses that glow at night. And south of the Science Learning Center is our original science building — Berkner Hall, where 2015 Chemistry Nobel Laureate and UT Dallas alumnus, Dr. Aziz Sancar, pursued his research.

        

        

   13. Karl Hoblitzelle Hall

       Crossing the street and walking south from Berkner Hall, you will find Karl Hoblitzelle Hall on your right, which houses our School of Interdisciplinary Studies (IS). The interdisciplinary programs provide students with a broader learning experience and a wider perspective. Through innovative combinations of coursework, IS students study topics like business, communication, diversity, environmental studies, health care studies, human resources, international relations, liberal arts and sciences, pre-law and public relations.

        

   14. Engineering and Computer Science North, South, and West

       On the southwest corner of Rutford Avenue and Franklyn Jenifer Road, you’ll find Engineering and Computer Science West (ECSW). The ECSW building is the newest addition to our campus, houses our growing engineering programs and boasts a LEED Gold Status. The building was designed with exposed hydraulic, electric, heating and air conditioning systems so students can see firsthand how the building technologies work. This building has top-rated classrooms, labs, faculty offices, student workspaces, a 300-seat auditorium and a UTD Market shop.

        

        

       The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) is housed in a three-building complex, with six academic departments: bioengineering, electrical and computer engineering, computer science, materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, and systems engineering. Classroom and lab facilities include on-campus makerspaces, high-bay garages and advanced, specialized research labs, all designed to allow our students the opportunity to engineer their creative ideas into reality. ECS students also participate in the Industrial Practice Program (IPP), one of the largest internship programs of its kind with nearly 600 student placements a year at hundreds of Dallas-area companies.

        

   15. Student Services Addition Building

       Across from Engineering and Computer Science South is the Student Services Building Addition (SSA). The SSA offers a ton of space for students to gather and study. The main floor has a large auditorium, a market, the Comet Card Office and a spectacular, larger-than-life gaming wall! Students can request the use of the gaming wall at any time, check out one of our games or bring their own!

        

   16. Activity Center

       We are at the end of our tour and have returned to the Activity Center (AC). The AC, the largest of our three fitness centers on campus, is home to our NCAA Division III intercollegiate teams, intramural sports, and many on-campus recreation activities. The UT Dallas community has access to multiple gyms, racquetball courts, an indoor swimming pool, personal training and fitness classes.

        

       Thanks for taking our self-guided tour and welcome to UT Dallas!