UA chancellor lists barriers to growth

University of Arkansas Chancellor Joe Steinmetz speaks after he was formally vested with the symbols and ornaments of his position during a traditional investiture ceremony Thursday in Fayetteville.
University of Arkansas Chancellor Joe Steinmetz speaks after he was formally vested with the symbols and ornaments of his position during a traditional investiture ceremony Thursday in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Enrollment growth of 10 percent to about 30,000 students is "our capacity" for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Chancellor Joe Steinmetz said Thursday.

"However, further growth will not occur without first addressing several factors that are impacted by growth," Steinmetz said.

He listed the hiring of more tenure-track faculty, adding office and research space, increasing the proportion of graduate students and increasing student housing -- "just to name a few things," he added.

Steinmetz spoke at a campus investiture ceremony to formally present him as the university's chancellor. Steinmetz has been the university's top administrator since Jan. 1, arriving from Ohio State University, where he served as the school's executive vice president and provost.

E. Gordon Gee, the former Ohio State University president who hired Steinmetz, introduced him as "a wonderful person and a dear friend of mine." Gee is now president of West Virginia University.

In his remarks, Steinmetz spoke mostly about eight campus priorities meant to guide the university. UA has described the priorities, first announced Oct. 3, as resulting from a collaborative planning process.

"First and foremost, advancing student success. This is our most important priority," Steinmetz said.

He cited UA's most recent six-year graduation rate of 62.5 percent and first-year student retention rate of about 82 percent.

The numbers "are, in my opinion, too low for the quality of students we enroll and, more than that, the quality of instruction we deliver," Steinmetz said. "We're better than that."

Other top UA leaders in the past have set goals to improve the graduation rate, which has increased in recent years. The 1999 freshman cohort had a graduation rate of 56.4 percent, according to university data. The 62.5 percent rate is tops among four-year public schools in Arkansas, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But UA's graduation rate still lags behind some peers such as Louisiana State University, with a 67 percent graduate rate; the University of Missouri, at 69 percent; and Texas A&M University, at 79 percent.

To advance student success "means for us particularly paying attention to our first-generation Arkansans" and "increasing financial assistance to those who need it to help reduce student debt," Steinmetz said.

On diversity, Steinmetz said any school "that does not strive to reflect the complexity and diversity of our state, our nation and world is failing its students and failing its faculty."

He also spoke about the importance of cross-disciplinary opportunities to boost collaboration and innovation and enhancing research because "new ideas and disruptive technologies begin with basic research."

Faculty are "the foundation on which everything else is built," Steinmetz said, addressing a priority to invest in faculty.

"We will work to identify additional dollars to increase the salaries of our existing faculty and consult with the deans and the Faculty Senate fiscal committee on where and how to distribute those dollars," Steinmetz said.

To promote innovation in teaching and learning, Steinmetz said UA must "provide faculty opportunities to learn and adopt practices from other institutions and other departments on campus."

UA has a value to the state that goes beyond conferring degrees and the school's economic impact, Steinmetz said. The university is a partner, a resource and "we are a driver of change," Steinmetz said.

Steinmetz also called graduate students "indispensable" to the university's mission, and said UA must increase recruitment efforts and student support.

Near the beginning of his remarks, Steinmetz said these are "challenging financial times" for a university like UA.

"The fact is, we're consistently and constantly being asked to do more with less," Steinmetz said.

In closing, Steinmetz said he's asked administrative units to reduce spending by 1 percent for each of the next three years. Those funds will then be used to support the school's academic plan, Steinmetz said.

Also, for each of the next three years, academic deans are reallocating 1 percent of their budgets "to a fund that will be maintained in each of their colleges to support this plan," Steinmetz said. "They'll present their ideas for redistribution annually at our budget meeting."

And with the recently launched public phase of Campaign Arkansas, the school's $1 billion fundraising effort, "in essence, our eight priorities are our priorities for our capital campaign," Steinmetz said.

"We want to make sure we invest in ideas that also leverage other sources of support such as federal grants, corporate gifts, private partnerships and foundation support," Steinmetz said. "I believe these sources of funds will be extremely crucial for us in advancing our university."

Metro on 10/22/2016

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