This summer UTD experienced its second consecutive summer shake up. Business students will be greeted with the smell of fresh paint and clean floors as the newest academic building on campus — JSOM III — begins operations, and the institutional backbone behind every committee on campus now has written policy behind it.
Construction
Over the summer, construction on JSOM’s roughly $98 million expansion was finalized with classes, offices and student organizations expected to fill JSOM III this fall. The new academic building brings with it UTD’s second Starbucks as well as new study spots and 12 classrooms.
The new Student Union and Student Success Center is on track to finish construction later this year with a planned opening in January 2027, just in time for the new semester. On Aug. 20, 2026, the SpawGlass, the construction company overseeing the project, celebrated the completion of one million man-hours to build what will soon be UTD’s largest set of buildings. In its construction updates, SpawGlass said that final touches will continue to be placed on the building in the coming weeks.
The finished SU complex will house Dunkin’ Donuts, a Tex-Mex spot called Copperhead Jack’s, Jimmy John’s, a larger Halal Shack and a larger TeaCo.
Policy
Among the most substantial changes to policy this summer came in the form of the complete restructuring of the university facilities committee. The facilities committee was formerly a university-wide facility made up of students, faculty, staff and administrators who discussed the state of campus facilities, ongoing construction and potential construction projects. According to bioengineering professor Clark Meyer, the final chair of the facilities committee, the committee did not meet a single time during academic year 2025-26.
“[The facilities committee] has been sunset and a new committee with a related function will be created in the fall by the University President and led by Rafael,” Meyer said.
In place of the facilities committee, UTD has established the Space Planning and Capital Evaluation committee — better known as the SPACE committee. As outlined in the newly created UTDPP3122, SPACE “is charged with evaluating space and capital needs across academic, research, administrative and auxiliary functions and providing recommendations to the President that support effective, data‑informed use of university facilities and resources that align with the university’s strategic priorities and master plan.”
Instead of a body composed of representatives from across the campus community, SPACE is made up of only vice presidents. The five voting members of SPACE are Vice President for Administration Rafael Martín, who serves as the chair of the committee; Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Marc Christensen; Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Brian Ten Eyck; Vice President for Budget and Finance Orkun Toros; Vice President for Research and Innovation Joseph Pancrazio. Its non-voting members include the associate vice president for facilities management, the assistant vice president for engineering, construction and planning as well as the assistant vice president for IT architecture and operations.
In lieu of the now defunct Academic Senate, faculty serving on university-wide committees will be selected by the new Committee on University Service as outlined in UTDPP1129. The CUS is made up of one faculty from each of UTD’s seven schools and two representatives from the Presidential Faculty Advisory Council.
UTDPP1015’s Auxiliary Services Advisory Committee was rebranded to the Food Service Advisory Committee with a full rewrite of the charge and focus of the committee to accommodate its narrower focus specifically on campus food service, previously just one of the many auxiliary services this committee oversaw. The new food service committee has also been specifically instructed to collect feedback from students about the various restaurants and other food providers on campus.
“The Committee shall also serve as a mechanism for obtaining meaningful student input regarding the selection, renewal, retention and monitoring of food service providers operating on campus,” UTDPP1015 states. “In carrying out this responsibility, the Committee may solicit and evaluate student feedback concerning provider performance and service quality and may provide recommendations regarding desired qualifications, service expectations and operational requirements for prospective and existing food service providers.”
The Student Fee Advisory Committee, as governed by UTDPP1037, also saw some minor updates to replace mention of the Academic Senate with CUS. The policy also clarified that student members are “nominated” by Student Government and the Graduate Student Assembly, rather than “appointed,” distinguishing the nomination from final appointment authority by the President.
Neuroscience senior and Student Government President David Baker said the change from “appointment” to “nomination” had not been included in the packet of proposed changes the Handbook of Operating Procedures Committee — the body that determines university policy — reviewed.
References to the Academic Senate were replaced with the CUS in various other university policies governing university-wide committees.
University Leadership
The largest change to UTD’s leadership structure came on July 8 when Marc Christensen was appointed to serve as the new UTD provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Christensen replaced Inga Musselman — UTD’s provost from 2017 to July 2026. President Prabhas Moghe first announced the search for a new provost last October.
Christensen previously served as a technical lead and staff member at Northrop Grumman (1991-1997), a founder and vice-president of Applied Photonics Incorporated (1997-2004) and an SMU employee between 2002-2022 where he held various administrative positions. Between 2013 and 2022 Christensen served as the dean of engineering at Southern Methodist University. From 2022 until 2024 Christensen served as the President of Clarkson University — a private research university with roughly 4,000 students — in New York.
“I am honored to serve UT Dallas at this pivotal moment in its history,” Christensen said in a statement to the university media relations office. “Our university has extraordinary faculty, talented students and a distinctive capacity to bring disciplines together to address complex real-world challenges. I look forward to working across the University to advance academic excellence, strengthen student success and expand the impact of our teaching, research and engagement throughout North Texas and beyond.”
Unlike other upper-level administrators UTD has brought in from outside of the campus, Christensen was already a UTD employee prior to his promotion to provost. Christensen worked as a senior advisor to UTD’s research division before being appointed by Moghe to serve as the president’s special advisor for industry engagement and innovation impacts. Christensen began his tenure as special advisor to the president during the provost search.