front&center: Robert Charles Brown

Tech president committed to academic excellence, financial responsibility

By Amy Widner

Photo by Greg Benenati

Two years after coming to Arkansas Tech University, Robert Charles Brown instituted a policy of strategic planning along with the support of the Tech Board of Trustees. Brown attributes much of the university’s growth and success to this policy, but said it is ultimately a means to an end: providing students with opportunity for success.

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — Robert Charles Brown has a plan for success at Arkansas Tech University - not for himself, but for the students.

Brown became Tech’s 11th president in 1993. Two years later, his philosophy of strategic planning was formally adopted and institutionalized by the Tech Board of Trustees.

Today, the results of that philosophy are all around: in the buildings, the number of students, the number of programs.

“For me, it’s about the overall picture,” Brown said. “If we have extended opportunities, even to one person who otherwise wouldn’t have had that chance ... and I mean quality programs, which is what makes it possible for all of those additional students to be here. All of that planning, it only has the purpose of putting out that quality.”

Brown said Tech strategic planning is guided by the following principles:

◊provide the highest quality educational programs possible within available resources;

◊pursue an effective enrollment management strategy;

◊provide a physical setting indicative of the intellectual quality within the university;

◊and augment public funding with private fundraising.

Fourteen years later, the results are clear. Since 1995, Tech has established 43 new programs of study. Enrollment has grown from 4,730 in 1993 to 8,814 in 2009 - an 86 percent increase. Tech has set enrollment records for 11 consecutive years, a record repeated nowhere else in the state.

The number of students living in university facilities has also increased: from less than 700 in 1995 to 2,500 in 2009.

Increasing enrollment has been accompanied by facilities and fundraising.

Under Brown’s administration, Tech has seen more than $160 million in new construction, new instructional equipment and renovation. No building on campus has been left untouched, Brown said, and new construction has included the library, the student services center, classrooms, residence halls and athletic facilities.

In 2003, Tech merged with Arkansas Valley Technical Institute, establishing a branch campus in Ozark.

Meanwhile, more than $35 million in private funds have been raised to support university programs and operations. The Pendergraft Library and Technology Center was funded by a gift from the Reynolds Foundation, allowing the construction of what is now Tech’s most distinctive facility and the heart of campus.

Brown said strategic planning is successful because it is inclusive. That idea of one man coming to a university with a vision and a to-do list? Wrong. Growthhas worked at Tech because of a shared vision, one that takes into account a variety ofvoices.

“We prefer a future that we plan together to one that we just allow to happen to us,” Brown said. “There are always things that come up, but we try to anticipate those things and work together for a future we all have a stake in.”

Brown said it’s easy to walk around campus and see a new building and more students, but it’s harder to nail down the ethics that lead there. Most important to him is that growth has occurred in a qualitative way and in a financially solvent way.

During Brown’s administration, Tech has instituted more selective admissions policies, resulting in a dramatic increase in entering freshmen ACT scores. The 2009 class of entering freshmen have an average composite ACT score of 23.09 and an average high school grade-point average of 3.3.

All of those new programs of study - they haven’t come at the expense of quality in other programs. National accreditation has been achieved or reaffirmed in business, music, engineering, teacher education, nursing, health infomatics, chemistry, parks and recreation, hospitality administration, medical assisting, emergency management andcomputer science.

Brown is also serious about financial solvency. He said academic excellence and solid financing must be balanced for success. He knows he’s gained the nickname of “Bottom-line Bob” around campus, and he is A-OK with that.

“We are very proud of the fact that we are financially responsible in everything we do,” Brown said. “We try to uphold the idea of being good stewards of resources. We try never to forget that the funding, this university, it all belongs to the students, and that’s the reason the people of Arkansas entrusted us with their money, for that purpose. It’s an important part of who we are and what we do.”

Brown comes from an economics background. Originally from Coushatta, La., Brownearned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La. He earned his master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Louisiana State University. Brown taught economics for many years, taking part in administrative roles from the start.

Brown went to college on a scholarship and saw firsthand the magic education worked on his life. Every single idea that drives what he does - the strategic planning, the hard work, the dedication to excellence, the financial responsibility - it all fits into one overarching philosophy: a belief in the power of education.

“We’ve got lots of young people that, but for this institution, might not have those opportunities,” Brown said. “So buildings, fundraising,sure I’m proud of all that. But that’s done for a reason, for the other things that are more important. The students.”

Leadership goes wrong when things start to become about the leader and not the task, Brown said. True to form, Brown only agreed to a profile article about him after some arm-twisting. He said he is a “very private man who happens to have a very public job.”

As Tech has celebrated its centennial this year, everyone has been in a reflective mood: about the past as well as the future. Brown’s 16 years at Tech are somewhat of an anomaly in the higher education administration world. Most university presidents only stick around for five years or so before moving on.

Brown said his extended stay at Tech has given him the opportunity to really engage in his surroundings - the extra time to follow an idea, an ethic to its conclusions.

A practical man, however, he’ll make no predictions as to where the future will lead him.

But if the spirit of the centennial year is any indication, Brown feels confident that when he does move on, he will have left Arkansas Tech University in the right position to move forward.

“We’re convinced that the best years at Arkansas Tech are the ones still in front of us,” Brown said.

- awidner@ arkansasonline.com

River Valley Ozark, Pages 164 on 11/01/2009