Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
UA research efforts focus of town hall
Chancellor: University aim is to improve people’s lives
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Chancellor Charles Robinson vowed Wednesday to continue — and even enhance — the university’s emphasis on research endeavors, noting that research excellence is inextricably tied to the university’s land-grant mission.
The land- grant charter demands quality and quantity of research, because “we’re here to make the lives of people in this state, nation and world better,” Robinson said. Research is how “we discover” those methods of improvement, so “the case for research is self-evident.”
The university has prioritized research more and more in recent years, classified as an institution with “very high research activity” since 2011. At the university, research expenditures were up by 26% from 2018-2021 compared with 2014-2016, and the university hauled in more than $142 million in research awards for fiscal year 2022.
UA- Fayetteville enjoys the “Research 1 — Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity” from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Of the nearly 4,000 public and private schools classified by the Carnegie Foundation, only about 4% have that designation.
There is “no intention of retreating from R1” status, but, rather, “we’re doing what we can to [do more] research,” Robinson said. “We will always pursue more and better.”
And the university’s landgrant status means more to Robinson than being the “flagship” of the UA System, he said. Land-grant institutions are about “service to the state,” rather than saying, “look at me.”
As the university embarks on the strategic planning process for its next 150 years, Robinson and other university leaders are conducting town hall meetings to gather important feedback.
The university’s town halls became popular means of communicating during the covid-19 pandemic, so Robinson wanted to continue them for the strategic planning process, and “your thoughts are as important as my thoughts,” he told his audience. “We want to hear from you, [and] what matters to me is what you’re thinking.”
Each town hall focuses on one element of three strategic priority areas: student success, research excellence and the university’s status as an employer of choice. Robinson is participating in all three sessions, and Margaret Sova McCabe, interim vice chancellor for research and innovation, is moderating all three, with the first on Wednesday centered on research excellence.
Research is a critical element of student success, and research begins with faculty, Robinson said. Attracting and retaining superb faculty and staff is why being an employer of choice is so pivotal to Robinson, so all three of these strategic priorities “connect together.”
Kim Needy is “so excited about these three initiatives, [ and] they are so bundled together,” said the College of Engineering dean. “It’s hard to pull them apart.”
The university already attempts to spur research by providing grant writing workshops and seed-funding opportunities — like the Chancellor’s Fund for Innovation and Collaboration — as well as bringing federal officials and industry leaders to campus to meet faculty and see facilities, Needy said. “I see our research moving [more] interdisciplinary, [with] faculty collaborating across the campus, [and] when we try to attract talent here, they see our future is bright.”
Though an interim, McCabe has the mandate to keep the university’s research and innovation moving forward through continuous improvement, she said. In recent days, she’s visited the university’s research park and the Fay Jones School of Architecture to learn about their research, and in both cases, she saw the main focus was “how do we do things better for people?”
That is also the case with the university’s Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research (I³R), a new model of public research and economic development that prizes collaboration to deliver positive societal impact, said Ranu Jung, founding executive director of I³R. The world is facing several challenges, from providing quality health care to an aging population to dwindling natural resources, but universities play a major role in solving these complex problems, and that is the mission of I³R.
Problems without easy solutions that require taking risks in order to make a positive impact on society, that’s I³R’s raison d’être, she said. I³R will bring people together — “convergence” — and it will “span the entire university, all disciplines.”
I³R is purpose-driven, she added. “How can we move the ‘future’ to the now? That is what drives me.”
Though the humanities are not always top of mind when considering research, that arm of the university wants to continue building bridges through research, said Tricia Starks, director of the Humanities Center and professor of history. The Humanities Center also provides annual grants to humanities professors, with which they have demonstrated that they “do great things and create magnificent research.”
Erica Westerman, a recently tenured associate professor of biological sciences whose research focuses on butterflies, was drawn to the university in part for its research emphasis, and she is encouraged that research will remain prioritized moving forward, including through expanding the greenhouse where she does lab work.
“In general, [support for research] has been quite good” since she joined the university seven years ago, and “the fact that the university put the greenhouse on a site where it could expand in the future” was telling, said Westerman, who recently received a five- year, $ 1.35 million Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation to support her research on the role of genetics and ambient light in shaping the visual sensitivity and behavior of butterflies. Additionally, “maintaining a butterfly facility like this” — it is kept at 80 degrees and 80% humidity — requires “a lot of effort, and the people in the Facilities [department] have been incredible.”
The university’s “research is one of the best-kept secrets in Northwest Arkansas,” and it “needs to be amplified,” said Ann Bordelon, the university’s executive vice chancellor for finance and administration.
Needy concurred, noting “we need to get these messages out.”
“Research is critical to our institution, but it’s not easy,” Needy added. “Every one of us plays a role in trying to move the needle.”
Professors like Westerman want to provide opportunities for students to experiment, learn and research, and UA-Fayetteville provides those chances, she said. “I have great diversity in my lab, [and] I’m able to take students to conferences and help them get papers published.”
However, the university is not satisfied with where it is regarding research.
The university needs to attract more doctoral graduates for research, look at more data from peer and “aspirant” institutions to institute best practices, and find “more resources,” said Terry Martin, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs. “The research we do educates our students [and] advances our graduate education.”
Faculty and staff need space and resources to do their research work, but “we don’t share well enough,” Needy said. “There are opportunities to share resources in a better way to leverage those resources.”
It is important to remember research can be costly, and while Robinson is committed to research, he does not want to force students — especially Arkansans — to pay significantly higher tuition to fund it, he said. If “we have to get [that money] from students, [that would] have a profound effect on accessibility.”
“Resources are constrained, [ so] we need to look at maybe stopping some things that are past their time,” Bordelon said.
The second town hall, next Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., will focus on student success, while the final session — at 9 a.m. March 17 — will concentrate on the university being an employer of choice. Both will be at the E.J. Ball Courtroom in the School of Law (1045 W. Maple St.) and can be viewed on the university’s YouTube page.