Hurricane relief

UNT faculty, staff and students have found a number of ways to provide assistance to victims of this season's hurricanes.

The university is providing an American Red Cross shelter for evacuees from Hurricane Rita at the former Liberty Christian School property and worked with the North Texas Animal Rescue Alliance to open a nearby shelter for pets.

In the days after Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast, the university worked with more than 100 displaced students who were looking for a new college home and created online courses specifically for students affected by the hurricane. Office space was offered to displaced faculty, with access to the UNT libraries and the web.

		Mean Green athletes collecting supplies for Katrina victims

After the Mean Green football opener against LSU was postponed due to Hurricane Katrina, the pep rally intended to kick off the season became a rally for aid. The team held an open practice on what would have been game day to collect money, food, clothing, toys and toiletries for the relief effort, then loaded a 26-foot truck with the supplies and drove it to the Red Cross in Dallas. They collected more than $22,000, while the campus set of goal of raising at least $32,000 (a symbolic $1 for each student) for the American Red Cross.

As Denton welcomed evacuees into the city, UNT students, faculty and staff helped with everything from counseling children in area shelters to setting up computers. Visit www.unt.edu/newuntfeatures/katrina or www.unt.edu/rita/index.htm to read more about UNT's relief efforts.

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Three appointments

Three new deans are joining the university. Kathleen B. Cooper, the former undersecretary for economic affairs in the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the new dean in the College of Business Administration. Robert Winston Milnes, professor of art and director of the School of Art and Design at San Jose State University, will be the new dean of the School of Visual Arts. And Herman L. Totten, UNT Regents Professor of library and information sciences, was named to a special two-year term as dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences. The appointments are subject to the approval of the UNT System Board of Regents.

Kathleen B. Cooper

		Kathleen B. Cooper

Cooper, whose appointment becomes effective Oct. 1, replaces Mary Shepherd Thibodeaux, who has served as interim dean of COBA since former dean Jared Hazleton stepped down in May 2004 to pursue teaching. Thibodeaux will return to her position as associate dean.

Cooper served as undersecretary for economic affairs in the U.S. Department of Commerce since 2001. In that position, she led an organization of 10,000 employees that produces most of the nation's demographic and economic data.

Prior to joining the Department of Commerce, she served as chief economist of ExxonMobil Corp. and as manager of the economics and energy division of its Corporate Planning Department, having served as Exxon's chief economist from 1990 to 1999.

Her educational career began at UNT, where she took classes as a freshman from 1963 to 1964. While working in an administrative capacity for the federal government, she finished her bachelor's degree in mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1970. She earned a master's degree in economics in 1971 from UTA, and received a doctorate in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1980.

Robert Winston Milnes

		Robert Winston Milnes

Milnes, an acclaimed sculptor and ceramist, will assume his new responsibilities at SOVA on Jan. 16, 2006. He replaces Michael Drought, professor of visual arts, who has filled the role of interim dean since D. Jack Davis resigned at the end of the 2004 academic year to return to part-time teaching and directing the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts.

Milnes' works have been included in more than 165 national exhibitions and are represented in public collections and numerous private collections. He has traveled to China, Taiwan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Mexico to further develop his art work, conducting research and establishing exchange programs.

Prior to his time at San Jose State, where he has been a director and faculty member since 1990, Milnes was director of the School of Art at Louisiana State University and chair of the art department and professor of ceramics at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy and fine arts from Claremont McKenna College in 1970, his master of fine arts degree in ceramics from the University of Washington in 1974 and a doctoral degree in higher education administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987.

Herman L. Totten

		Herman L. Totten

Totten, former associate dean of SLIS, has served as faculty executive assistant to UNT President Norval Pohl for the past three years. His term as dean began in September. He replaces Samantha Hastings, associate professor of library and information sciences, who has served as interim dean since 2004.

Totten joined UNT in 1977 as professor and associate dean of SLIS. He returned to full-time teaching in 1983 and taught 14 years before resuming his position as associate dean in 1996.

In addition to his academic and administrative work at UNT, Totten is the former president of the Texas Library Association and has served as chair and member of many of its committees. He is a life member of the American Library Association. In 2004, President George W. Bush nominated Totten for a five-year term on the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. The U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment in January of this year.

Totten earned his bachelor's degree in music at Wiley College in Marshall in 1961. He earned a master's degree in library science in 1964 and a doctoral degree in library science in 1966 — both from the University of Oklahoma.

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School to college

		Chilton Hall is home to the offices and many of the programs of the newly named College of Public Affairs and Community Service.

Earlier this year, the UNT System Board of Regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approved a new name — the College of Public Affairs and Community Service — for the School of Community Service.

The college celebrated its new name, which became official Aug. 1, with a week of activities Sept. 26-30, including its annual Public Affairs Forum.

"Although community service, in its broadest sense, continues to be a critical element in degree programs like rehabilitation, gerontology and behavior analysis, this emphasis no longer represents the whole of the school," Dean David Hartman says. "We also believe that the category of 'college' more accurately reflects the complexity and maturity of our academic programs."

Currently, the college offers nine bachelor's degree programs, 13 master's degree programs and three doctoral programs. In addition, it has active research and service centers supported primarily by external funds from federal or state sources.

Among the college's assets are:

• The Department of Public Administration, ranked 10th in the nation and first in Texas by U.S. News and World Report for its program in city management;
  
  
• The Department of Behavior Analysis, which has received a $3.3 million bequest for brain research;
  
  
• The Department of Applied Gerontology, one of the first academic departments of gerontology in the nation; and
  
  
• The Department of Criminal Justice, with faculty who are nationally recognized experts in policing, juvenile justice, victims' issues, computer crime and forensics.

Other departments in the college that have contributed to its record of achievement are the Department of Anthropology; the Institute of Applied Economics; the Department of Rehabilitation, Social Work and Addictions; and the Department of Sociology.

Faculty in the college now offer almost 70 web-supported courses as well as one master's degree and one certificate program completely online. The college was also one of the first UNT units to offer academic programs at the UNT Dallas Campus and other off-campus sites. It currently has student programs in Mexico and Israel and training or research programs in China, Japan, Turkey and Thailand.

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Fort Worth gallery

		UNT artspace FW

Showcasing the work of artists with UNT connections, a new art gallery opened in September in the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth. "UNT artspace FW," a 1,650-square-foot gallery in the newly constructed Center for BioHealth at the Health Science Center, will primarily showcase UNT-based curatorial projects featuring exhibits by UNT faculty members, alumni and students.

The premier exhibition, Symbiotic, celebrates UNT's longstanding relationship with the museums of Fort Worth, which are within easy walking distance of the gallery, by featuring the art of UNT alumni who work at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Amon Carter Museum and the Kimbell Art Museum.

Fort Worth company Thos. S. Byrne contributed $50,000 to the creation of the gallery, and Carter & Burgess committed $25,000.

Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday and noon to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The gallery is closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. For more information, call the gallery at (817) 735-0205.

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Mall renovations

		Grace Cartwright Library Plaza

The Grace Cartwright Library Plaza is the latest improvement on the north side of the Willis Library Mall area, behind the Hurley Administration Building and adjacent to the Shrader Pavilion. The plaza, made possible by a gift from the estate of former UNT Regent Grace Cartwright, is a bricked area displaying the new North Texas Eagle primary spirit mark.

Retired librarian Louise Evans ('38, '39 M.S.) has donated more than $130,000 for a waterfall on the south end of the mall. The Highland Street entrance to the area will be named in her honor.

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