AUSTIN, Texas—The naming of the new Psychology & Child Development Building as the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Psychology, Child Development and Family Relationships Building at The University of Texas at Austin was approved Thursday (Feb. 11) by UT System Board of Regents.
At their meeting in Austin, regents also approved the design development plans for the $44.2 million building at the northwest corner of Dean Page Keeton (26th) and Speedway streets. Work on the project is scheduled to begin in late April of this year.
The new building will be home to the department of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and also home for the Child Development and Family Relationships program within the department of human ecology in the College of Natural Sciences. Currently, the two groups are in several different buildings on and off campus. The new facility will bring the individual functions to a single location.
The 175,000 gross-square-foot building will contain faculty offices, high-tech wet and dry labs, a psychology clinic, early childhood teaching facilities, family interaction labs, conference and library rooms and support facilities. The Seays, of Dallas, are longtime supporters of UT Austin and the UT Southwestern Medical Center. In addition to $5 million for the new psychology building project, the Seays, their family and the Seay Foundation have given UT Austin several other gifts. Among these are the principal for an endowed faculty chair, three endowed faculty professorships and two endowed scholarships.
The project is included in UT’s 1998-2003 Capital Improvement Program and is being funded through bond proceeds, designated tuition funds and gifts and grants.
