University of Texas of the Permian Basin entrance sign
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin began in 1973[14] as a university that initially offered only junior, senior, and graduate level programs. Among those who pushed for the establishment of UTPB was the oil industrialist Bill Noël, who with his wife, Ellen Witwer Noël, became major philanthropists of the institution.[15]
In 1991 the university began accepting freshmen and sophomore applicants, and in 2000, the J. Conrad Dunagen Library and Lecture Center was completed, featuring a twenty-station multimedia lab and classroom.
During 2006, the university was holding discussions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the construction of a new High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor which, if successful, would finish licensing and construction around 2012. It would also be the first university-based research reactor to be built in the US in roughly a decade, and one of the few HTGR type reactors in the world.[16] In late November in 2016 the city of Odessa granted site permission. That was the first step in official authorization.[17]
On April 17, 2008, the university broke ground on a new Science and Technology Complex. The new building houses chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, and information technology programs. The new 70,000-square-foot (6,500m2) building contains 41 labs, 56 offices, six classrooms, and three sunken lecture halls. Despite warnings from a UTPB Geology professor, the contractor failed to identify an underground aquifer that could cause the building supports to sink. Construction was delayed while the contractor reinforced the building supports after drilling into the aquifer; however, the building opened in time for the Fall 2011 semester.[18] The building houses classrooms, multiple laboratories including two large demonstration labs, a 200-seat lecture hall, and a state-of-the-art Data Communications Teaching Lab for undergraduate and graduate students. The Computer Science Department maintains a computer science research lab and a computer networking research lab.
In 2018, UTPB announced a new kinesiology building at a cost of around 37 million dollars.[19] The following year, UTPB announced the opening of its 55 million dollar engineering building.[20]
Campus
Main campus
Visual Arts StudiosStonehenge replica on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa
A Stonehenge replica was added adjacent to the Visual Arts Studio.[21]
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