UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
2002-2003 Catalog
Since its formation in 1943, Southwestern Medical School has grown from a small wartime medical college into The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, a multifaceted academic institution nationally recognized for its excellence in educating physicians, biomedical scientists and health-care personnel.
Under the leadership of the late Dr. Edward H. Cary and Karl Hoblitzelle, a group of prominent Dallasites organized Southwestern Medical Foundation in 1939 to promote medical education and research in Dallas and the region. When Baylor University elected to move its school of medicine from Dallas to Houston in 1943, the foundation formally established Southwestern Medical College as the 68th medical school in the United States.
When a new state medical school was proposed after World War II, leaders of Southwestern Medical Foundation offered the college's equipment, library and certain restricted funds to The University of Texas, provided the university would locate its new medical branch in Dallas. The Board of Regents accepted this offer from the foundation, and in 1949 the college became Southwestern Medical School of The University of Texas. In 1954 the name was changed to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The present campus site on Harry Hines Boulevard was occupied in 1955 upon the completion of the Edward H. Cary Building. This placed the medical school faculty next to the newly built Parkland Memorial Hospital.
In November 1972 the name and scope of the medical school were changed with its reorganization into The University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas. In approving the concept of a health science center, the Board of Regents provided for the continued growth of coordinated but separate medical, graduate and undergraduate components, interacting creatively on the problems of human health and well-being.
In 1986 the Howard Hughes Medical Institute opened a research facility on the campus. Concentrating on molecular biology, it has brought outstanding scientists to head laboratories in their specialties. These investigators also hold faculty positions in the basic science departments of the medical school and graduate school.
In October 1987 the UT System Board of Regents approved changing the name of the health science center to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, reconfirming its original Southwestern identity. The medical center encompasses Southwestern Medical School, Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School.
UT Southwestern is located on Harry Hines Boulevard, a 10-minute drive northwest of downtown Dallas. Since the late 1960s the university has added more than 5 million square feet of new construction. The 60-acre South Campus includes 16 buildings housing classrooms, laboratories, offices, an extensive medical library, an auditorium and a large outpatient center. Affiliated hospitals adjacent to the campus are Zale Lipshy University Hospital, Parkland Memorial Hospital, St. Paul University Hospital and Children's Medical Center of Dallas.
In 1987 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the university 30 acres near the South Campus for future expansion. A 20-year master plan for the site, named the North Campus, calls for six research towers, a support-services building, an energy plant, and underground parking, in addition to the Mary Nell and Ralph B. Rogers Magnetic Resonance Center. Three research towers and an elevated campus connector, linking the South Campus with the North Campus, have been completed. A fourth research tower is under construction. In 1999 the university purchased an additional 50 acres from the MacArthur Foundation.