Taylor students entering sixth grade this fall may be among the first to have the opportunity to earn engineering degrees without leaving their hometown when the University of Texas at Austin – Taylor Center opens in a few years.
UT President Jay Hartzell announced Thursday, May 9, that the university would be building a campus in Taylor. Thursday evening, members of the Temple College at Taylor Foundation discussed the news at City Council.
“When we had lunch with the president of University of Texas on Tuesday, Dr. Hartzell and the entire engineering staff, the development staff, several other people they recognized the generous gift we made to the University of Texas for the future of Taylor, and all of what University of Texas is going to bring to this area,” said James Bartosh, president of the foundation and a UT alumnus. “But we all need to understand that this would not be happening had this city council not brought (Samsung Austin Semiconductor) to Taylor. Look how quickly it parlayed into a wonderful educational opportunity for Taylor.”
Temple College at Taylor Foundation donated a 68-acre parcel of land to the university for the new campus. Foundation members valued the real estate at approximately $25 million. The land is near Taylor’s Samsung semiconductor and shares an eastern border with Taylor High School.
TCAT also gave $51,000 in funding to start the site planning. The funding to build a facility will require additional support from other sources, according to Amanda Brown Irving, the university’s assistant vice president of philanthropic planning.
According to Louis Hughes, a Foundation board member, the land was originally purchased by Temple College for expansion, but the planned partnership with another institution fell through. Hughes said that while there have been other institutions interested in the land, the Foundation was waiting for the right opportunity.
“This board has always put the community first so even though there were offerings, they didn’t really feel it was the right thing to do,” Hughes said. “Sometimes you feel like you’ve got to be doing something, but what you really need to do is sit and wait for the perfect opportunity.”
According to the UT announcement, the Taylor Center will be at least in part dedicated to education that works in the “semiconductor ecosystem.”
“We don’t totally know what it’s going to look like. It won’t be a UT Austin minicampus that’s got liberal arts and those types of things. They’ve gotten over half a billion dollars’ worth of legislature money under the UT umbrella and they basically have a research mandate. Some of that’s going to be workforce development,” Hughes said. “Semiconductor manufacturing is a very hands-on process so there’s still the need for a physical presence and the workforce needs to be local.”
The foundation board member said that in working with the university they put some parameters on the project to ensure the campus would remain a priority. While nothing is set in stone, Hughes said the foundation put in a five-year goal for the groundbreaking, with an 18-month goal for the build-out.
Irving said the university has put together a task force to develop a master plan for the Taylor Land and to convene leaders across campus to determine the best use and impact.
Map of where the 68-acres of Temple College at Taylor Foundation donated land is. The land is colored purple. Photo courtesy of Temple College at Taylor Foundation
