Monday, October 30, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

The dedication and contributions from our community are helping shape the future of UTA. We have taken the dreams received over the past year and half and have created a shared vision that unites us in a common purpose. The collective vision for UTA is:

“To have a lasting impact on the communities we serve by developing the talents of our students, leading in innovation and discovery, and fostering a culture of engagement.”

This vision is guiding the development of our strategies and initiatives that will be part of UTA 2030, our new strategic plan that will be unveiled next semester. I have heard the excitement from our community for the new plan, and in the meantime, I am proud to share with you the recent achievements and new efforts and initiatives in our theme areas below.

We have a lot to celebrate across UTA as we dream big. For the seventh straight year, we’ve enrolled the largest first-time-in-college class in our history. Our researchers received 31 utility patents for their work in 2022, contributing to the University of Texas System’s overall ranking of No. 3 announced in September. UTA’s Spanish Community Translation and Interpreting program was the sole baccalaureate program nationwide selected as a 2023 Example of Excelencia for its use of intentional, culturally relevant, evidence-based practices tailored to Latino students and their communities. Our engagement is also strong, and UTA Night at the Rangers had the largest turnout ever with over 3,000 students, faculty/staff, alumni, and friends attending, the most for any Rangers university night this season. And I’m proud to announce that we raised a total of over $27.7 million in gifts this past year, our best year in a decade, to support academics, research, and engagement.

I am incredibly grateful for the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners that we have helping us reach our goals. I look forward to announcing our new plan soon, as we bring a strategic alignment through goals, strategies, and tactics to our themes, cascading throughout all aspects of UTA to create a bright future ahead.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Cowley, Ph.D.
UTA President

When it comes to student success, we are looking at the entire journey of our students, from affordability to career-enhancing experiences that launch them into their dream professions. This fall, over half of our first-time-in-college students have their tuition and fees fully covered, helping make a UTA education attainable for our Mavericks.

For those students looking for employment now and in the future, the Student Employment Job Fair saw a 50% attendance increase and the inaugural Maverick Masterclass attracted numerous employers to discuss new partnerships to bolster career opportunities. We’ve strengthened partnerships with companies like Lockheed Martin through the College Work Experience program and the Security Clearance program launched in April, and UTA now has several students who have secret security clearance.

As we focus on well-being, the Counseling and Psychological Services program has introduced TimelyCare, an online mental health service available to students thanks to support from the UT System. Our CARE team, formerly the Behavior Intervention Team, is focused on UTA's institutional vision of creating a community that cares, aiming to destigmatize the use of support resources on campus.

We have had a great semester so far, and I hope that you’ll join me at an upcoming athletics game. Volleyball plays at home this week, and the cross country teams exceeded expectations on Friday at the WAC Championships and are now preparing for the NCAA Regional. Homecoming is also happening Nov. 6-12; it’s going to be a week filled with Maverick spirit.

We continue to advance our research and innovation goals, and the first phase of the Recruiting Innovative Scholars for Excellence (RISE) 100 is actively underway. As part of the first phase of hiring, we are launching searches for three clusters of faculty in brain health, semiconductors, and community-engaged research. The second phase of RISE 100 will be supported by a Faculty Review Committee, with searches to commence in fall 2024. More information can be found on the RISE 100 website.

Dallas has been selected to serve as one of three hubs for a new, unprecedented $2.5 billion federal biotech agency, called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. This new agency within the Department of Health and Human Services aims to create a health innovation network that will collaborate to solve health problems like cancer, dementia, and diabetes faster. UTA’s talented faculty and research capabilities are well-poised to participate in this exciting endeavor, and we are exploring ways to partner with this new agency hub in the near future.

In addition to these regional endeavors, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation has been proactive in supporting faculty-led initiatives. Through the Commercialization Gap Fund program, over $200,000 has been awarded to faculty members, enabling them to advance their cutting-edge technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace. The Interdisciplinary Research Program has allocated $100,000 across five grants, fostering collaboration across colleges.

These efforts not only highlight UTA's commitment to pushing the boundaries of knowledge, but also demonstrate the tangible impact of research and innovation on our community and beyond.

We’ve been focusing on deepening our engagement and relationships with our alumni and community. This semester I had the pleasure of meeting with alumni across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and all the way to Seoul, South Korea. We also had over 1,000 UTA alumni educators sign up to receive UTA spirit items for their classrooms.

UTA is broadening our reach and building meaningful relationships. We’ve launched a new comprehensive brand awareness campaign introducing The Maverick Factor emphasizing our footprint in the DFW region. We have also expanded upon our partnership with Univision to maximize our outreach through television, radio, and digital channels and promote the Tu Futuro scholarship program. We believe that our marketing campaign and this strategic collaboration will enhance our reach to communities across the Metroplex.

We also were excited to have alumnus Lou Diamond Phillips (’85 BFA) join UTA for a week as an artist-in-residence, where he engaged with students and faculty to impart his extensive knowledge and experiences in acting, directing, and film and theater work.

An important priority of our engagement efforts is creating opportunities for our community to continue their academic journeys. I am excited about UTA’s recent announcement that alumni, students, and employees can access our expanded microcredential program of 29 professional certificates from leading companies like Google, Salesforce, IBM, Intuit, and more through the Career Academy on Coursera platform.  

Recently, I invited you to join us as we kicked off UTA’s Campus Master Plan Update, a strategic initiative that occurs every 10-20 years to reevaluate and help shape the future of our campus. This comprehensive plan encompasses improvements in academic settings, sustainability, campus infrastructure, mobility, open spaces, and much more—and our community’s input is essential. If you missed the virtual kick-off meeting on Oct. 11 and pop-up engagement sessions, more events will be held in the months ahead. You can now provide feedback via the survey on the website as well.

Our goal is to create a vibrant campus environment that aligns with UTA's vision and serves as a testament to our commitment to excellence in learning, research, and community engagement.