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|University Faculty and Associates Meeting
April 19, 2005
UC Rosebud Theatre
As you can tell from the video, The University of Texas at Arlington has a great deal to be proud of in the area of research, broadly defined. Our scientists, scholars, and artists are internationally renowned, and the work conducted in our laboratories, studios, and classrooms is making an important contribution not only to the intellectual development of our students and disciplines, but also to the betterment of our society.
My guess is that each of you is familiar with some of the work reflected in the video. What you may not be familiar with, however, is the tremendous breath of expertise that is found in every department on campus. While the video only has time to focus on a few important contributions, it does, I believe, demonstrate the tremendous breadth of contributions our university makes in fields as divergent as nanotechnology and glass blowing and to fields as central to our everyday lives as health care, education, and politics. As President, one of the great joys I have is a high level view of the University and its vast, diverse intellectual contributions and conveying our mission, our purpose, and our excellence to those unfamiliar with UTA. Simply put, The University of Texas at Arlington is a world-class university and a world-leader in many fields. You know it. I know it. Our alumni and current students know it. And increasingly, the general public is coming beginning to know it. And part of my job is to make it so. You'll be seeing much more about our branding and key messages project in the months ahead.
In my time with you this afternoon, I would like to update you on developments across campus and in Austin as well as speaking briefly about a few priorities that require our attention.
Developments and Accomplishments
Faculty Hiring
In my remarks last fall, I noted that UTA welcomed to campus not only its largest student enrollment in history, but also its largest group of new faculty. The faculty that joined us were not only large in number, but were also perhaps our most impressive group of new faculty. I am pleased to report, that next fall we will welcome another 35 colleagues to campus, and their credentials are equally impressive! That's 85 new faculty positions over a 2-year period.
For example, Dr. Richard Billo joins us as Associate Dean of Engineering and a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering. Dr. Billo comes to us from Oregon State University, where he currently serves as the Intel Faculty Fellow and the Coordinator for the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute. Professor Tuncay Aktosun of Mississippi State will join the Mathematics Department. Dr. Aktosun's research in applied mathematics and differential equations has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. And there are many others....
Hires of this quality are important to keep pace with our growing student population, to provide important replacements for retiring and departing faculty, and more importantly, to provide the women and men necessary to continue to advance our already high research profile. We are not only bringing more new faculty to campus, but we have initiated a concerted effort to provide better support for our new colleagues. It is quite likely that when you first arrived at UTA, you received a brief orientation from your College or School, HR, and perhaps a new faculty orientation sponsored by the Provost's Office. After those initial orientations, however, there were limited resources available to new faculty. This year, following a recommendation from the Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities, the Office of the Provost launched a new faculty mentoring program. This program matched senior UTA faculty with those in their first three years on a voluntary basis. The early reports we have from this program is that it has been a tremendous successes. I would like to thank those who participate in this program. We will continue this program next year, we will expand its scope, both in terms of size and programming, and we will be responsive to the feedback we have received from this year's participants.
In a similar vein, we have recently had a conversation with the Academy of Distinguished Teachers related to what we can do to provide greater support to faculty-both new and existing faculty-to help improve teaching. While limited resources exist across campus, we should, and we will, do more to support teaching development and improvement.
Research
As the research video shown at the outset attests, scholarly excellence at UTA is an integral part of our university's mission. For some time we have needed a better vehicle for communicating with our campus and external audiences about our research achievements. To that end, next fall, we will initiate a new UTA research magazine designed to showcase the breath and excellence of our scholarly achievements. We expect it to be an effective tool for highlighting the work conducted at UTA. UTA has come a long way since the 1970s, when it transitioned from primarily a teaching institution to a research-driven University. But, we still have progress to make over the next few years to become a major nationally recognized research university. And that is our mission: to become a major nationally recognized research university where groundbreaking research is synergistic with outstanding teaching. Our students have the privilege of being taught by scholars who are creating and applying new knowledge.
An important indicator of a university's research prowess is its annual expenditures on research-and more specifically, its annual expenditures on highly competitive, federally sponsored programs. In 2004, UTA increased its federally sponsored research expenditures by 39% over the previous year ($11.09 million vs. $7.99 million), and by 111% over those in 2000 ($11.09 million vs. $5.24 million). And, we will continue to significantly increase these numbers each year.
Just to give you an idea of the progress we are making in research, last July UTA was selected (over the University of Houston) to lead the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, a $5.7 million per year U.S. Department of Commerce program. U.T. Arlington's selection as the lead university helps identify us as a leader in manufacturing research and development in the state, and should lead to even more funding opportunities. Also, just this year, two more major federally funded programs were awarded to our faculty members in Physics. In January, a Southwest Consortium led by UTA (with principal investigator Professor Kaushik De from Physics) was selected as a new national NSF-funded supercomputing center (so called, Tier 2 site) for the U.S. ATLAS program (an international High Energy Physics Program). Funding is at the level of $3.2 million over five years with the possibility of this increasing even further ($5 million over five years). The others two sites selected were already existing-a Boston University/Harvard University team, and a University of Chicago/University of Indiana team. It is interesting to note the three sites not selected over UTA: U.C. Berkeley, Duke University, and the University of Michigan. I think it says something about UTA's reputation in this area, and truly marks the path for the kind of national and international recognition we deserve.
Also, UTA Physics Professor Ping Liu was recently awarded a $3.2 million grant for five years from the Department of Defense under the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). UTA is again the lead university with collaborators from Brown University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, and Florida State University. The project involves development of super-strong nanocomposite permanent magnets.
And these are just a few of the most recent successes. There are many others. Faculty in our Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering Research and Technology (INSERT) brought in nearly $7 million in awards the last two years. It is these types of larger scale activities focused around visible Centers of Excellence that will have a major impact on research and the reputation of UTA.
The second key ingredient to research success is our graduate students. In particular, a key measure of a university's status is the number of doctoral degrees granted each year. Since 2000, we have increased our number of doctoral students by 38%. We will continue to increase both the quantity and the quality of our graduate students by allocating more funds for their support. This Fall we are taking, for the first time, an important step in this direction by providing fellowships designed to offset designated tuition and fees for doctoral-level GRAs in science and engineering.
Infrastructure
During the past year we have remained active at improving the campus infrastructure, which will enhance our teaching and scholarship and improve the overall appearance of our campus. Let me take just a moment to update you on several of these initiatives.
As you walk about campus, you have undoubtedly noticed the construction of our new chemistry and physics building, which will provide much-needed laboratory space. The new facility will also house a state-of-the-art planetarium. The physics department has already hired the director for the new planetarium, Dr. Robert Bonadurer, previously of the Minnesota Planetarium who arrived on campus earlier this month, and we expect that this planetarium will bring thousands of new visitors to campus each year. Once the chemistry and physics departments have relocated, we will begin renovation of their vacated spaces to create additional classrooms, offices, and laboratories.
Across campus, we just recently held the grand opening for the Studio Arts Center. If you were unable to attend the dedication ceremony, I strongly urge you to make the time to visit these impressive studios, which were designed by the artists who will be using the studios. Surrounding a large courtyard, students interact with faculty in studios dedicated to printmaking, painting, sculpture, metals, glass blowing, neon, and other mediums. At the entrance leading to the courtyard is a gallery that exhibits student work and that also serves to attract the public to the important creative work we are doing here at UTA.
As we speak, students are voting on a referendum that could lead to enhancing the capacity and attractiveness of our campus. This "student life" initiative, championed by the Student Congress, would include an $18 million expansion and renovation of the Activities Building. The student life initiative would also help fund the operating costs for the proposed Special Events Center. I believe this facility, which would be the home to our men's and women's basketball teams, our volleyball team, and the Movin' Mavs basketball team, would significantly change the climate of life on this campus. This facility will be widely used by the community and include programming from the Arlington Independent School District and the Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau-as well as our own sporting events, concerts, lectures, and graduation ceremonies and convocations. I believe a Special Events Center would be a magnet, as well as spawn some much-needed retail development around the perimeter of the campus.
A project on the horizon is a proposed clock tower to serve as a central focal point for our campus. Most campuses have some sort of physical symbol that focuses attention of on the university community. We are still in the preliminary discussion stage for this tower, but I believe such projects are necessary to help build the traditions that so many faculty, staff, and students long for. Of special note is that the early design work is being conducted in one of our graduate Architecture Design classes.
A final building project which we hope is in our immediate future is a new Engineering Research Building, which would significantly expand our Engineering facilities. We currently have a request for a tuition revenue bond before the Texas Legislature, and we believe that this expansion is necessary to provide critical research, office, and teaching space to our growing Engineering departments.
Facilities planning for the campus also continues. We will soon be announcing the firm that has been selected to assist us in updating our campus master plan to reflect our recent additions and our future plans. We also continue the challenging task of keeping our current buildings in working order. In January, we moved our computing data center from the basement of Davis Hall to a building close to UTA's Automated Research and Robotics Institute to provide room for expansion. This summer, we will close University Hall for approximately two months while we install fire suppression equipment and remove asbestos. I recognize that this move will be inconvenient for those who office, work, and access services in University Hall, and I want to personally thank you for your cooperation, patience, and understanding for this critically necessary project.
One final infrastructure-related item bears mentioning. Last fall we announced that we would begin to replace our antiquated student information system with a new system called MyMav. I am pleased to report that this project is proceeding on schedule. Officials from OIT, Academic Advising, Student Enrollment Services, and Accounting and Business Services have been working diligently to make sure our transition to the new system is a smooth one. To date, much of the work on this project has necessarily been behind-the-scenes work. By the time we gather again in the Fall, we will have more concrete results to share with the campus and will begin to train the campus community on the new system.
Before the implementation of the MyMav system, we will make a significant change in the way that we conduct day-to-day business with our students. For several years now, e-mail has been considered an official means of communication between administration and faculty. Beginning in the Fall, we will make e-mail our official means of communication with students as well. All students are issued an e-mail account when they are admitted to UTA, and we have recently expanded our server capacity to accommodate the anticipated increase in usage of student e-mail accounts. In the Fall, tuition bills, academic advising notices, scholarship and financial award notices, and other business-related communication will be delivered to student e-mail accounts instead of their home mailing address. This will allow us to save postage and printing costs, increase the efficiency of delivery of important information to students, and significantly reduce the amount of mis-delivered mail due to having an incorrect mailing address on file. If you are not already doing so, I would encourage each of you to consider using e-mail as an official means of communicating with the students in your classes. At the very least, we are encouraging each faculty member to place a statement in their syllabus stating their e-mail policy.
Texas Legislature
As you know, the Texas Legislature is still in session. At this point, I do not have much to report since the bulk of the work remains to be done. As you may have heard, the House and the Senate bills related to higher education are significantly different. The Senate version provides more dollars to higher education; however, it uses the new formula that reduces the amount of money we would receive for classes in engineering, education, and nursing. The House version provides fewer dollars but uses the old formula, which we prefer. Obviously we would like to see a compromise that included the Senate's dollars distributed using the House's formula. We will know the results in the next few weeks.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the legislative process we do not, at this time, have definitive word about the amount of money that will be available for merit raises. We fully expect to have a merit pool available for both faculty and staff, and we have directed administrative offices to conduct merit evaluations so that when the pool becomes available, the appropriate adjustments can be made. It is likely however, that this exercise may not be completed until sometime this summer. We continue to recognize that salaries at UTA not as competitive as we want them to be and believe that providing competitive salaries for our faculty and staff is a high priority. This year, for the first time, our most research-active faculty received either a one-time research excellence award or a supplement to their professional development account. The total for these supplements was $1 million. We recognize that these awards are not a substitute for a permanent increase in salary; however, we believe that they demonstrate our commitment to act-not just talk about salary competitiveness-and that excellence can be rewarded in many creative, tangible ways.
Let me say a word about tuition for next year. Contrary to what you may have read, the tuition increase is consistent with the Board of Regents' pledge to keep tuition increases modest this year. Nor was the UTA tuition proposal made by out-of-touch administrators who were not concerned with the large number of part-time students at UTA. Nothing could be further from the truth. The campus committee that approved the tuition increase is chaired by Casey Townsend, Student Congress President, and a majority of the committees members are students. Moreover, the tuition increases for most students is at or below 5%-and for some it could be much less. For example, a student taking three or six hours will have an increase of 5.01%, a student at 9 hours will have an increase of 5%, and a student at 15 hours will see an increase of 4.98%. All at or under 5%. Only the students taking 10-13 hours will see increases higher than 5%, and we are hopeful that they will add one additional course to speed their time to graduation. We also provide students with the opportunity to receive a discount if they pay their tuition on time. Finally, students who take 30 hours and earn a 2.25 will earn a $200 rebate. I am deeply appreciative to the members of the Tuition Review Committee for their thoughtful, conscientious review and contribution to UTA. This modest tuition increase will help us maintain our momentum in building a stronger, more vibrant university.
Strategic Planning
After arriving on campus last February and having had an opportunity to study the campus landscape, it became clear to me that the university would benefit from developing a strategic plan that would guide our development in the coming years. During the Fall semester, the Provost and I held a number of "Strategic Conversations," where we solicited input from faculty, staff, students, and members of the community on a variety of issues. The comments from these forums were used to guide our redrafting of the university's planning priorities. These new priorities were shared with the campus community for reaction. The Faculty Senate was especially helpful in reviewing and commenting on the proposed priorities. After a comment period, I adopted the priorities that will guide our planning for the next academic year.
While the campus was revising the planning priorities, the long-range planning committee conducted a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the university. Three weeks ago, I joined the Provost, the Deans, our Vice President for Communication and our Vice President for Research for a two-day retreat facilitated by Dr. Sheldon Ekland-Olson, Provost from U.T. Austin. The purpose of this retreat was to begin the challenging assignment of developing institutional goals and objectives related to the planning priorities and to make difficult strategic choices. Work on the strategic plan will continue over the summer and by the time we meet next fall, we hope to have a draft of the plan available for campus comment.
As I'm sure each of you is aware, in an environment of limited resources, we can not be all things to all people, nor can we meet every, admittedly legitimate, or even pressing need. The reality is that we must make choices and at times these choices will be difficult and not embraced by all parties. The purpose of this planning exercise is to provide a framework for those difficult decisions. It is critical that each of you be involved in this process. The strategic plan is not, nor should it be, my vision for The University of Texas at Arlington. This should be OUR plan and "our shared vision" for UTA. The strategic vision for the university should emerge from the campus. The Provost and The President will certainly help to shape, inform, and implement the plan, but the direction and the choices that we need to make should be informed and animated by the faculty. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) will begin a review of our campus in the Fall 2006. SACS expects, indeed requires, that the strategic direction of the university have broad-based campus support.
Summary
Before closing, let me mention an issue that requires all of our attention. Since arriving at UTA, you know that I have made building traditions and creating an exciting campus culture one of my priorities. I firmly believe that an exciting campus environment will go a long way in helping UTA recruit and retain the best and brightest, faculty, staff, and students. Creating this environment, however, will require effort and participation from all of us.
Today, the second of five candidates for the Vice President for Student Affairs position concluded his visit to campus. Dr. Kent Gardner has held his position for a number of years and led the division of Student Affairs during a period of tremendous growth at UTA. We all wish him well in his retirement and in his new role in the College of Education, and we thank him for his outstanding service to UTA. At the same time, we are also excited about the opportunity to bring new leadership to important dimension of life on campus.
Each of us can help in this process of invigorating student and campus life. In thinking back to my undergraduate days, while I certainly remember some of my inspiring professors, I am more likely to remember the connections I made with fellow students, the campus activities I participated in, and the simple pleasure of being on a college campus. The literature is very clear on this point-students who feel connected to the university are better students, are more likely to stay in school, are more likely to make steady progress to their degree, are more likely to graduate in a timely fashion, and are more likely to be supporters of the university after their graduation. At the core of these connections and activities are faculty sponsors and mentoring. I fully recognize that each of you have full schedules with multiple commitments. However, I would strongly encourage you to seek out just one opportunity, one student group, one student-related program and become involved. Imagine the difference we could make in the lives of our students if each faculty member on campus became involved in just one student activity each year.
Improving the campus environment for students is just one aspect of enhancing the campus culture. For some time now, faculty on this campus have desired a faculty club where they could meet, gather informally with colleagues, and host visitors for meals while remaining on campus. Last year, we conducted a survey to determine the format and preferences of the faculty. I am pleased to announce, that either during the Fall semester or early Spring semester, we will open a faculty club. You will recall I mentioned that we moved the computing and data center off-campus to Fort Worth. This summer this space will be used to house some displaced offices from University Hall due to their renovation. Once that renovation is complete, we will begin to convert the space in the basement of Davis Hall to a faculty club. We will likely start on a small scale to gauge support for the club. The location is convenient to parking and is easily accessible to the both sides of campus. This space is also adjacent to a sunken courtyard. I am hopefully that this club will contribute to enhancing faculty interaction and provide an enjoyable space for collaboration, socialization, and community building. More details to come.
Finally, let me conclude with what is one of my more enjoyable duties. Each year, we have the honor of recognizing the faculty who have made outstanding contributions in teaching, research, and service. Last week, we recognized several of your colleagues during Academic Excellence Week at the President's Convocation. Today, we would once again like to recognize those faculty who received teaching or research awards as well as those who are the recipients of Faculty Development Leaves and Research Enhancement Grants. The names of these award winners are printed in the program when was available when you entered. If you are an award winner, please stand.
Please join me in recognizing these outstanding faculty members.
This concludes our meeting. I would also remind you that for the first time, UTA will hold a Spring Graduation Convocation. The event will take place on May 13th at 7:30 p.m. at Maverick Stadium. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will deliver the keynote address, the UTA Marching Band will perform, and we will have a fireworks show. Please mark your schedules and plan to attend this event that I hope will become an annual tradition.
I would now ask that each of you join Provost Dunn and me in the foyer, where we will formally celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues.
