Interim President Jim Davis intends for the University to evolve in the city’s developmental scene, he said at a breakfast event with the Urban Land Institute March 26.
Davis said one of the biggest challenges the University faces is its deferred maintenance due to approximately half of the buildings on campus being about 50 years old. Davis said the University brought in a new landscape architect to preserve the campus grounds. Nursing freshman Hope Luensmann said she would want the University’s classrooms to be modernized.
“Sometimes you don’t really have a desk in a lot of the classrooms and taking exams, having a desk, or someplace that I can write stuff down, would have been really beneficial to me because taking a test with no arm space (is) one of the downsides of having older buildings,” Luensmann said.
Davis also said his goal is to make housing more accessible to students to get more students on campus. The University recently made UT free for students with an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less, and Davis said he would like that number to be higher.
Jose Arce, an international relations junior, said he decided to live off campus with about a 20 to 30-minute commute due to budgeting decisions.
“I sometimes see a disparity between students who have the freedom to live closer, have that more integrated college life, and not only translating to friendships and everything, but translating into having more connections, attending events that sometimes go late at night,” Arce said. “It definitely translates into success for all the students.”
Davis said the University plans for a future cap on I-35, or a large bridge over the highway, that would connect the campus through the Moody Center and the UFCU Disch-Falk Field. South of where the cap will be located is the hospital district, and he hopes to connect it to campus with another cap. Davis said major investments are being inputted into this area because of the scarcity of the land and to connect the areas.
“I get to be the leader of a place where 50,000 minds awaken all the time,” Davis said. “Every year they come through, so I think about our land as that contribution back to what it means to be a university and how we use that land to unlock that.”
