University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center - History

History

Under the leadership of Dr. Edward H. Cary and Karl Hoblitzelle, a group of prominent Dallas citizens 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. Founded during World War II, the medical school was initially housed in a handful of abandoned barracks.

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 System, 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.

Since the late 1960s the university has added more than 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) of new construction. The 60-acre (240,000 m2) South Campus includes sixteen buildings housing classrooms, laboratories, offices, the extensive University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center 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 (Dallas).

In 1987 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the university 30 acres (120,000 m2) near the South Campus for future expansion. A 20-year master plan for the site, called 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 and the Moncrief Radiation Oncology Center. Three research towers and an elevated campus connector, linking the South Campus with the North Campus, were completed in the 1990s. A fourth 14-story research tower, was completed in 2005. In 1999 the university purchased an additional 50 acres (200,000 m2) from the MacArthur Foundation and a portion of the property was used to create an on-campus student-housing complex of 156 apartments. A second phase of 126 units opens in the summer of 2004. After its initial affiliation with Southwestern in 1999, the Moncrief Radiation Oncology Cancer Center has expanded its reach in 2003 with more facilities located in Dallas, Fort Worth, southern Tarrant County, and Weatherford, Texas.

The clinical services are expanding as annual patient visits to the medical center’s clinics average 400,000 a year, up dramatically from only 50,000 annually 15 years ago. In 2003, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences added a 12th member and in 2004 the National Academy of Sciences elected a 15th member from the UT Southwestern faculty to join its ranks.