DENTON, Texas (UNT) -- The year was 2000, and a personal friend of then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush – Charles C. Francis – was breaking a barrier for gay-rights advocates by holding a meeting with the governor and 11 other gay Republican men and women. It was the first time a Republican presidential candidate had ever formally and publicly met with a group of openly gay and lesbian individuals. On the agenda for the group known as the "Austin 12": a frank conversation about gay and lesbian issues, sharing personal stories as gay and lesbian Republicans and a discussion about Bush's presidenti...

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Emmanuela Akosua Opoku, a doctoral student in the University of North Texas' Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies, has been awarded a $5,000 P.E.O., or Philanthropic Educational Organization, International Peace Scholarship. Seven UNT students have received the scholarship since 2002.

Opoku, a native of Ghana, entered UNT in the 2014 fall semester to enroll in the doctoral program in environmental ethics and philosophy. Sh...

Presidential candidates began offering opinions over the weekend on whether or not South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from its capitol building.

Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, associate professor in the UNT Department of Political Science, is available to discuss candidates offering opinions on controversial topics. He can be reached at 940-565-2329 or mes@unt.edu.

"This is un...

A gunman shot and killed nine people at one of the nation's oldest black churches on the evening of June 17 (Wednesday), according to media reports, and police are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime. Experts at the University of North Texas are available to comment on the shooting from various angles. Check back for updates to this page with additional experts.

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Associate Professor of Biology and neurological studies, Nicoladie Tam, was awarded a 2015 UNT Scholarly Works Outstanding Contributor Award because her research article "Computational optimization problems in social interaction and empathetic social emotion" was one of the most viewed items in the UNT Scholarly Works institu...

DENTON, Texas (UNT) -- Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will address media in a press conference at 1:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. EDT) June 17 (today), and industry analysts are speculating that an increase of the federal interest rate could be announced later this year. It would be the first increase since 2006. 

Economist Michael Seman, senior research associate at th...

What: The first Thursday Night Music at UNT on the Square - Summer Edition, presented by the University of North Texas Institute for the Advancement of the Arts and the UNT College of Music

When: 8– 9 p.m. June 18, 25 and July 2, 9, 16, 23

Where: UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St., on Denton's historic courthouse square

Cost: Free

More...

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Three University of North Texas biology researchers were awarded $2.7 million from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to study the effects of oil on different animal species and water in the Gulf of Mexico.

UNT Assistant Professor of Biology Dane Crossley, Professor of Biology Warren Burggren and Assistant Professor of Biology Aaron Roberts will receive $2.7 million over three years for the research.

Crossley will evaluate the performance of juvenile fish after an oil exp...

What: The Federal Aviation Administration is co-sponsoring the Aviation Career Education (ACE) Academy Program, a five-day, hands-on camp exposing 11th- and 12th-grade high school students to aviation and aerospace careers. It comes to North Texas thanks to a new collaboration between the University of North Texas and Tarrant County College.

When: June 15 – 19 (Monday – Friday)....

DENTON, Texas (UNT) -- In Romania, 69 percent of the human trafficking victims never completed middle school, 46 percent were younger than 18, and 11 percent were recruited by relatives and spouses. Stark 2013 statistics, like these from the Romanian National Agency against Trafficking Persons, highlight a crisis. In the poor, central European country of Romania and other countries around the globe, experts estimate 20.9 million people have become prime targets for human traffickers, who profit off the...