UNT’s emergence as a student-centered public research university will clearly reflect the depth and breadth of its commitment to developing the whole person and building an enriched and sustainable society. This rooted transformation requires a close look at the words that describe its purpose. Through them the university itself is defined and shaped. As a Student-Centered university, UNT places the learner and the process of learning at the very heart of its activity, creating a synergy between faculty and students. It fosters peer and mentor relationships that spark intellectual curiosity. It uses innovative technolo- gies to bridge distances and to create connections. UNT engages students as participants in the process of knowledge creation—in the classroom and in the laboratory—challenging and supporting them as they grow. It opens the doors of opportunity by building a breadth of understanding, keen intellectual skills, disciplinary expertise, and professional relation- ships. UNT creates a diverse and inclusive community that enriches life with new experi- ences, warm memories, and deep friendships. As a Public university, UNT bears a special responsibility to the larger society. Its knowl- edge products—the innovations, scholarship, and creative endeavors of its faculty and the education provided to its students—are focused on the benefit of the communities it serves. It equips the workforce of the future, provides the innovations that drive commerce, and builds relationships that enhance the flow of ideas and link our economy with that of a changing world. It is the place where complex problems can be addressed in ways that enrich the future. It is where society continues to be reborn. In the past, the concept of a Research University conjured up images of ivory towers and ivied walls where eccentric scholars studied obscure and isolated ideas. That is not what research looks like at UNT. Here research has more to do with making connections: between ideas, between disciplines, between students and teachers, between the university and the larger communities it serves. Research expands our horizons, using the power of ideas to tackle the complex challenges of our physical, technological, and social worlds. It embraces the full range of human endeavor, from the arts to the sciences and from the humanities to business. It is through research that UNT embodies the gift of education at its fullest—giving the very future to our students and our society. student-centered public research university 7