Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Chancellor candidate addresses audience in first of talk series
FAYETTEVILLE — When it comes to helping students graduate, ways to help them earn a degree more quickly can be studied by a university administration, said April Mason, a finalist for the chancellor position at the University of Arkansas.
“The cost of college and the debt at graduation are important educational topics today. Can the time to degree be shortened by offering some additional robust summer school and online offerings?” Mason, provost and senior vice president at Kansas State University, said Wednesday.
About 150 people, mostly faculty and staff, gathered at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center to hear Mason in the first of three public talks from finalists for the top leadership position at UA.
Joseph Steinmetz, executive vice president and provost at Ohio State University, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Jeffrey Vitter, provost and executive vice chancellor at the University
of Kansas, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 15.
In prepared remarks lasting about 40 minutes, Mason outlined three main topics: learning, people and planning for the future.
Mason said Kansas State University has set a goal to be a top 50 public research university by 2025. UA also has set a goal to be a top 50 public research university, but by 2021.
“There’s so much to know about this goal and how and what plans have been put in place to achieve it,” Mason said, delivering a talk filled with questions to illustrate key areas of focus for a university to consider while also acknowledging that she is still learning specific details about UA.
When it comes to the role of a university, “the learning students do at the University of Arkansas prepares them to be better community members, prepares them to be ready for the next stage of their lives, whatever that stage might be,” Mason said.
Mason often referenced Kansas State in her talk, noting when it comes to graduation rate, “the numbers look very, very similar to the ones I look at on a regular basis.” UA has a six-year graduation rate of 62.3 percent, according to data released by the university last October; Kansas State’s graduation rate is 59 percent.
Mason said she has charged a Kansas State task force to examine whether critical prerequisite courses are being made available to students in the summer.
She said Kansas State is also looking at the number of student credit hours completed online, with the university “actively looking to increase those in strategic areas.”
When it comes to people, Mason emphasized the importance of recruiting and retaining top faculty and staff. To help boost the pay of tenured faculty at Kansas State, the university offers an opportunity for a performance-based salary bump six years after a faculty member becomes a full professor, Mason said.
In terms of planning for goals, Mason said that even if a university doesn’t attain top 50 status, “if you’re further along, you’ve made progress.”
As far as finances, universities have to assume there will be no increase in funding from state and federal sources, Mason said.
After her prepared remarks, Mason fielded questions from the crowd.
Asked about student growth — enrollment at UA has increased from 17,300 students in 2004 to about 26,750 this fall — Mason said increasing enrollment “is a great problem to have, but it’s a problem, because so many students take introductory courses.”
Mason said a grassroots approach must be taken to respond to issues related to growing pains.
Asked about a perception of a bloated administrative bureaucracy at UA, Mason said a university should take care to explain its use of resources.
She also said lawmakers at times create unfunded mandates leading to some hiring needs, and that “no one will always agree that we have exactly the right number of administrative people.”
After a faculty member asked about diversity in hiring, Mason said it’s important for students to “see faculty and staff that look like they do.” She said Kansas State has tried to attract a diverse faculty but the school hasn’t been as successful as she would like.
Mason discussed the recent addition of a Confucius Institute at Kansas State, a program of Chinese cultural understanding and language and academic exchange that has been criticized by some over curriculum and concerns related to academic freedom.
“I was unwilling to sign something that gave our academic freedom away,” Mason said, describing back-andforth over the partnership to ensure Kansas State faculty control the curriculum.
A social media policy for faculty set by the Kansas Board of Regents was opposed by Mason and the president of Kansas State University, she said.
“Dismissal of a faculty member for saying something that is their right to say is not going to happen under my watch,” Mason said.
Asked about the dismissal of a research scientist after he alleged to an academic journal misrepresentations made by other Kansas State researchers, Mason said she made the decision to fire Joseph Craine after “very careful discussion and thought,” doing so on the recommendation of a review team and after meeting with Craine. A university grievance hearing upheld the decision.
When it comes to a faculty member making such an allegation about another faculty member, “there’s a way to do that, and he did not follow our internal regulations for doing that,” Mason said.
“Dismissal of a faculty member for saying something that is their right to say is not going to happen under my watch.” — April Mason, UA chancellor finalist