A message to students from the Chancellor

This is your University, and this catalog is your guide to successful completion of your degree here. I want to add the goals I hope to fulfill while leading the campus, and I pledge to do everything I can to make them realities while you are studying here.

It was my great pleasure to have the cornerstone of my goals for the University of Arkansas ­ higher undergraduate admission standards ­ approved by the University's Board of Trustees just a few months after I arrived to lead the campus. The answers to the questions above will help you to see how the higher admission standards are being used.

Now that we have sent out the message to the world of our desire to educate the best and brightest, the goals that now head my list are improving our graduation rate and increasing private support. Undergraduate scholarships will be the key to competing with out-of-state public and private institutions, which now attract many of the state's brightest students. Other goals on the list of 10 priorities will enable us to help you succeed here and in your career following graduation.

The 10 key areas for improvement are as follows:

1. Increased private support. For undergraduate scholarships alone, we need an endowment of at least $100 million to replace the $5 million in state-appropriated funds that we spend annually for undergraduate scholarships.

2. Improved recruiting and higher graduation rate. We want to do whatever it takes to help you succeed here.

3. How we treat our stakeholders. The University must be a friendly, nurturing environment for students, our primary stakeholders.

4. Academic and career advising. Recent graduates have told us we need to improve in these areas.

5. Graduate research and outreach. UA faculty and students in all disciplines need to be involved in outreach throughout Arkansas to help communities and to learn from their experiences. To be a nationally competitive land-grant university and research university, we must have a tenfold increase in the level of externally funded research support.

6. Faculty, staff and student diversity. It is important that students learn to work with and relate to people of different races, genders and ethnic backgrounds. After graduation, students will likely be working with and for people who do not look exactly like them.

7. Campus and student life. Students have told us that campus life needs significant improvement. As a start, we are expanding the Arkansas Union and the Alumni House and have added to Mullins Library.

8. Faculty and staff workload and salaries. An initial comparison with universities in the ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and SEC conferences indicates that we need a larger student body for the number of degree programs that we're offering. The size of our faculty and physical plant also shows a capacity to serve a larger student body.

9. Campus appearance and facilities. Our campus needs to become a laboratory for our students in horticulture, weed science, turf science and landscape architecture. We have completed a campus master plan that includes facility needs over the next 20 years.

10. Information systems and technology. As many of you know, we've made progress by creating for use on the World Wide Web an application for admission, a course checklist for transfer students, and a virtual reality tour of the campus. You'll enjoy your Internet and e-mail access as a UA student and will benefit from course use of the University's considerable online resources.

All of us who work here believe the University of Arkansas is very good. But we know she can be much better. You'll see changes while you're here studying as we examine every process and program and every aspect of the University, to improve it for you and those who follow you. We want your degree to have high value as you seek your first job after graduation; let us know how we can improve.

John A. White, Chancellor