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NEWS
| October 23, 2003
Presidential Search
Smith: Collaborate on research
The first of the 5 presidential
finalists to visit the campus reveals his ideas for UTA during an
open forum Wednesday.
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| The Shorthorn: Brandon Wade |
| Presidential finalist Bob Smith holds
up the final report of the 2010 Commission he co-authored
at the University of Arkansas during a forum here on Wednesday.
He told faculty and students he would lead the university
to national status if he is chosen as president. |
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By Danny
Woodward
The Shorthorn staff
Bob Smith, the first presidential finalist to visit campus, said
research should be a collaborative effort between the university
and the Metroplex and between the university and its neighboring
institutions.
About 125 people — mostly university employees — attended
an open forum with Dr. Smith, the provost at the University of Arkansas.
After a general presentation, the talk turned to research.
Smith told the audience he would spend the first two months of his
presidency assessing the university’s strengths. Then, he
said, he’d work to foster research ties not bound by discipline
or the university.
“Research is all about developing partnerships with the city
and with other universities,” Smith said. “You need
to find public and private partnerships, set up a campaign for funding
and have an eye toward international development. You have to have
a very strong eye for development in everything you do.”
Liberal Arts faculty members expressed concern about Smith’s
use of “CEO” to describe the president’s position
and the inference that he thought a research institution wouldn’t
include strong humanities programs.
Smith said he’s a supporter of the arts and that research
isn’t just for technology and business fields. He cited several
examples from his past, including his helping bring a museum endowment
to Washington State.
English professor Laurin Porter said she was content with his answer.
“As a member of the College of liberal arts, I’m very
satisfied by his understanding of the importance of liberal arts
as a whole,” Dr. Porter said. “He seemed knowledgeable,
and he’s done his homework. He was well prepared.”
Smith, whose presentation lasted about 45 minutes, said he considers
nearby universities — especially UT-Dallas and UT-Southwestern
Medical Center — not as competitors for research money but
as allies for acquiring it. And, he said, UTA should search places
other than the Metroplex for revenue.
“Texas has a lot of urban centers,” he said. “San
Antonio is an urban center. El Paso is an urban center. Houston
is an urban center.”
Thomas Chrzanowski, a biology professor and former member of the
presidential search committee, asked Smith what he consideres as
the university’s greatest challenges.
Among his answers were fund raising and research developments, including
finding matching-funds grants, something he’s had success
with in Arkansas, he said.
“You don’t have to be a flagship, but you can move into
the top 100,” Smith said. “You’ve got to nurture
the great urban area you’re in.”
Other plans include:
• Smith said he’d hire more tenured and tenure-track
faculty or else consider capping enrollment, raising admission standards
or offering special incentives to the faculty already here.
• “Student-centeredness is a strength that ought to
be built upon,” Smith said.
That includes improving factors such as the freshman retention rate
(69 percent), the six-year graduation rate (35 percent) and alumni
giving (20 percent), he said.
• Smith said he would “love to put sculptures all over
campus. You’ve got a beautiful campus here, but these sculptures
could be signs of the richness and diversity of what’s going
on in the buildings here.”
• Smith said he would initiate a quarterly journal from the
President’s Office called “All Things UTA.” It
would report on positive happenings around campus and provide a
message from administration.
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Presidential Search Data Bank
For more information about the presidential
search, visit the Data
Bank.
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