Todd Dodge

Todd Dodge, nationally known head football coach at Carroll High School in Southlake and former offensive coordinator for the Mean Green, was named UNT’s 16th head football coach at a press conference Dec. 12.

During the five years that Carroll has been designated a Class 5A high school, Dodge, 43, has compiled a 77-1 record and won three state championships (Carroll is currently making a run for a fourth). He served as offensive coordinator at UNT in 1992 and 1993, directing the Mean Green offense to a per-game average of 348 yards and 26 points.

Since taking over at Carroll in 2000, Dodge has compiled an overall record of 96-11. His only loss since the beginning of the 2002 season was by a single point in the 2003 state title game. He was named National Coach of the Year by Schutt Sports in 2004 and by USA Today in 2005. More than 22 of his players have been signed to NCAA Division I athletic scholarships since he became a head coach.

A former starting quarterback for the University of Texas, Dodge threw for 2,791 yards and 18 touchdowns during his time in Austin. He still ranks ninth in both categories on the Longhorn’s all-time leaders list.

Dodge replaces Darrell Dickey, who coached for nine seasons at UNT, leading the Mean Green to four straight Sun Belt Conference championships and four appearances in the New Orleans Bowl from 2001 to 2004.

Athletic director Rick Villarreal, who made the announcement in November that Dickey would not return, said he was seeking a new coach to lead the program “to a position of prominence in the Sun Belt Conference and to a more competitive position at the national level.”

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President Gretchen M. Bataille began a national tour this fall to meet with UNT alumni and friends and spread the word about the university’s groundbreaking and innovative research and creative activities.
Her first stop was Nov. 20 in Chicago. If you are near one of her future stops, plan to meet her:

Jan. 10 — Denver
Jan. 22 — Washington, D.C.
Feb. 21 — San Antonio
Feb. 24 — Houston
March 8 — Los Angeles

Learn more about specific times and places at www.unt.edu/president/insider. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to UNT’s Division of Advancement at (940) 565-3480.

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The 2007 Department of Defense appropriations bill passed by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives — and signed into law by President George W. Bush — allocates $4 million to UNT for nanotechnology research. The funding will be used for research conducted in the Advanced Research and Technology Institute in the College of Engineering.

ARTI intends to use a portion of the funds to enhance its capabilities in various areas of advanced energy materials. Such materials may, for example, make illumination half as energy-expensive as equivalent incandescent and fluorescent light sources. Other environment-friendly energy research also is planned as part of the initiative.

The provision for UNT in the bill was secured in the Senate by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and championed in the House by Rep. Michael Burgess.

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Arts of Fashion 2006

		Krissi Riewe (top), who graduated from the UNT fashion design program in May, had her design (center) accepted for the Arts of Fashion 2006 competition. It was modeled by Kelly Sulak, UNT junior fashion design student. The design on the bottom won its creator, Kyoonhee Shin from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (second from left), an internship in the design studio of Wendy and Jim (right and left) in Vienna. (Photos by Jerrell Jones)

Internationally renowned experts from Paris, London, Brussels, New York, Vienna and other fashion capitals gathered at UNT in October for Arts of Fashion 2006. The symposium attracted more than 100 students from 43 colleges and universities in the United States. From 350 entries, 50 students — including one from UNT — competed for international internships and scholarships at the national event hosted this year by the UNT School of Visual Arts.

Arts of Fashion 2006 began with a four-day series of master class workshops by designers such as Crstof Beaufays of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Francois Broca of Paris’ Schools of the Chambre Syndicale, Tony Delcampe of Belgium’s School La Cambre, Wendy and Jim of Austria, and many others. Olivier Saillard, of the Musee de la Mode et du Textile and the Sorbonne in Paris, opened the symposium.

The competition culminated in a Paris-style runway fashion show and awards ceremony in the Silver Eagle Suite in the University Union. The students’ creations were judged by the visiting designers.

UNT’s Krissi Riewe, who graduated in May, submitted a sketch to the contest when she was still a student in the fashion design program. Designers were asked to interpret the theme “the expression of the body and mind.” Riewe says she was happy to make it to the final round and have her gown displayed in the runway show.

Janie Stidham, associate professor of visual arts and coordinator of the fashion design program, says that the backers of the prestigious contest sought out UNT for the location of the competition. The event, in its fifth year, was originally held in Paris. This was its debut in Texas.

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The Department of History’s annual Military History Seminar has been named after its founder, Alfred F. Hurley, President Emeritus of UNT and Chancellor Emeritus of the UNT System. Hurley, who is a nationally recognized military historian and a retired Air Force brigadier general, began the seminar series at North Texas in 1983.

The invitation-only seminar held each fall brings together about 200 business and community leaders and military historians from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and across Texas for a day of discussion on a set theme.

The announcement that the seminar was being named for Hurley, who held the university presidency for 20 years — longer than any other chief executive in UNT’s history — was made Oct. 14 at this year’s seminar, which focused on 21st-century warfare.