Denton city officials are concerned the move of several University of North Texas system employees from Denton to downtown Dallas could severely impact the university’s partnership with and future in the city.

That worry was initiated when the university invited Denton city officials to an open house at the Universities Center at Dallas this Friday to announce the relocation of nine UNT system employees who set up permanent shop in late August.

The UNT system oversees business functions at the Denton campus, UNT Dallas and the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, along with UNT’s programs at the Universities Center at Dallas.

The decision to move those nine employees — which include the chancellor, Vice Chancellor Nancy Footer and Vice Chancellor Richard Escalante, among other administrative support staff — to downtown Dallas from Denton was purely a business decision and won’t impact academics on the Denton campus, said UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson.

“We want to reassure everyone in Denton this was a minor change of staffing and policy,” Jackson said. “We dropped the ball on not publicizing this more clearly, but it will have no effect on the future of UNT Denton as the flagship and pre-eminent institution of UNT.”

The move, which has been in discussion for roughly seven years, will help the UNT system administrators oversee the three campuses effectively and will free up some much-needed space on the Denton campus, he said.

The new offices are about 40 miles from the Denton campus, 33 miles from the UNT Health Science Center, 12 miles from the Dallas campus and about 75 yards from where the university plans to open a law school in 2011.

Regent Don Buchholz said it is important to keep the UNT system’s offices off any particular campus to mitigate the perception of favoritism toward one campus.

However, Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs said he’s worried the move will shift the university’s focus away from the city.

“For 120 years there was no question that when you were talking about UNT, you were talking about Denton also,” Burroughs said. “That will no longer be the case.”

Burroughs said he fears Denton eventually will be relegated to a satellite campus, if degree plans or entire departments move to Dallas over time.

“That shift of systems, to me, is a clear indication of a shift in long-term goals and philosophy about the future of the University of North Texas, and it is not focused in Denton,” Burroughs said. “And that is greatly troubling to me.”

Jackson said he spoke with Burroughs on Wednesday and gave him every assurance the move wouldn’t impact the Denton campus, but the conversation will likely need to continue.

While Texas Tech University and the University of Houston keep their administrative offices on the main campuses, a large percentage of university systems operate either on the fringe of campus or off the central campuses completely, Jackson said.

Most UNT systems staff, which includes audit, legal and facilities will remain on the campuses they support, he said.

“For all this anxiety, there are far more employees on the system staff at the UNT [Denton] campus than in downtown Dallas,” Jackson said.

Burroughs also criticized university officials for not notifying the city of the change. He found out only by reading an invitation to Friday’s open house in Dallas, he said.

The lack of notification by UNT officials was unintentional, Jackson said.

“We have talked about it [the move] so much, we assumed it was well understood,” he said. “I apologize to the mayor and the Denton community for any anxiety. It looked to be a more significant change than what it was. It wasn’t a significant thing to us.”

The move to Dallas was meant to raise the visibility of UNT as a large, successful university in the region, not a move away from Denton, he said.

The UNT system will support the university’s Denton campus in every possible way as the flagship campus in the system and an emerging research institution in Texas, Jackson said.

The funding for new programs offered in Denton, such as the new aviation logistics degree and the new pharmacy program illustrates the UNT system’s commitment to Denton and won’t take away from the local economy, he said.

Chuck Carpenter, president of the Denton Chamber of Commerce, said the move concerns him, but he wants to be careful not to overreact.

“The general concern is that since 1890, Denton, Texas and what is now the University of North Texas have been synonymous,” Carpenter said. “Subsequently, this has been the flagship campus of the system. One observes that this could be changing.”

Carpenter said the joint economic development board discussed Tuesday whether the move should be on a future board agenda.

UNT President Gretchen Bataille, who is a member of that board, answered some questions about the move, Carpenter said.

“There was no doubt that Dr. Bataille’s heart is very much in Denton and her emotion was very visible in her remarks,” Carpenter said. “We will continue to be allies. This does not affect Dr. Bataille’s leadership and what the University of North Texas means to Denton.”

Carpenter said any change in UNT’s presence in Denton would probably be gradual.

“I don’t know that there will be an effect in my lifetime,” he said. “We should just never assume as an industry that UNT will continue to grow and be exclusive in Denton.”

Staff writer Matt Zabel contributed to this report.

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.