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New UCA President Houston Davis Talks Priorities, Plans

7 min read

Houston D. Davis begins work Monday as the 11th president of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

Davis joins the 109-year-old university from Kennesaw State University in Georgia where he was interim president. He will succeed Tom Courtway, who is retiring to return to teaching.

Davis previously worked as the executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer at the University System of Georgia, vice chancellor for academic affairs at Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, project director and principal investigator for the National Educational Needs Project, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents and associate vice president for academic affairs and assistant professor at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.

Arkansas Business spoke to Davis on Friday, just ahead of his first day at work.

Arkansas Business: What do you think of Conway and UCA so far?

Houston Davis: We’re really excited … We think that Conway itself is just a vibrant place. It’s clearly a community that is very proactive, very intentional in thinking about its future, seems to really be committed to connections between economic development, community development, education infrastructure. We love that UCA and Hendrix and the school system are all a part of the conversations about the future of Conway.

AB: What is UCA’s mission?

HD: I think that the university is beginning to become a first-choice institution, especially for students that are looking for a personalized [education], a lot of high-touch classroom experience, but also that in-class complemented by things like internships and experiential learning, undergraduate research. To me, that’s what sums up what UCA is. It’s a place where students can get a very personalized education that prepares them for being an active citizen and an active employee, no matter what field they choose to go into.

AB: What are your plans for the university?

HD: Well, my first order of business is going to be doing a lot of listening. I think that, right out of the gate, I’ll be meeting with a lot of leaders inside of the institution as well as community and state leaders, asking them questions. I do think that, right out of the gate, I’ll be placing an emphasis on enrollment growth and enrollment management, making sure that our students, our current students, are being serviced both in class and out of class at the level we would expect. Looking at new academic program development, I know that, at least based on my initial conversations with a couple of the deans and internal communication documents, there is an interest in growing our academic program portfolio. We’re making certain we’re thinking about where there are emerging disciplines that our economic development community is interested in. 

I also want to make sure that we are finding ways to meet the need for and utilize scarce dollars for need- and merit-based scholarships, to meet students where they are. It breaks my heart when I hear about a student that is in academic good standing but they have to drop out of school because of financial challenges … That’s where fundraising comes into play.

AB: What do you think about the proposed new college funding formula, and how will it affect UCA?

HD: I’m very excited about it. First of all, just broadly, I’m a supporter of that. I was in Tennessee for many years, being involved in their performance funding program. Actually, there were a couple of years where I was responsible for all of the campus reporting for performance funding. So I’m very familiar with that concept. 

As far as UCA is concerned, we are very well positioned for that environment. To thrive is the word I would use … We’ll get them across the finish line. That’s where Arkansas wins, and the region wins and UCA wins … It’s encouraging all the right things … What I hope I hear as I’m meeting with our faculty and our staff and our leadership is that there is already a strong commitment to measuring retention and progression … You hear a lot of conversations about predictive analytics. That’s a term from business and industry that’s come over into higher education. We collect a lot of information, but are we utilizing it? Are we making sure to take all those variables, take all those data points we know about students and use that as an early alert system to be able to reach students sooner rather than later?

AB: Two of your predecessors left because of ethical/legal violations. How will you assure the UCA community that you are operating in an aboveboard manner?

HD: One of the most important things is to have a lot of transparency in what we do. I’ve told a number of folks that one of the earliest pieces of advice that I received from one of my early mentors was to make your decisions and conduct yourself as if everything you’re doing is going to be printed on the front page, above the fold … 

I don’t necessarily want to dwell on the challenges that past leaders have had. I like to look at the institution as being well positioned, especially because of Tom Courtway’s leadership. He, twice, was called upon to be able to restore confidence and to make sure the university kept moving in the right direction. We’re going to be focused on the priorities in terms of time, effort and scarce resources being put to serving students. 

One easy way to do that, and I’m coming from a role where I was interim for a president that had similar challenges … One of the easiest ways that I provided focus on priorities was, if a decision in front of us was advancing our ability to serve students in the classroom or outside the classroom, then that was worthy for us to pursue. If it was outside of that core mission, then it might be something we need to put a pin in, lay aside and not bring forward as a priority.

AB: Does a university have a responsibility to students to see that they don’t take on more college debt than they can afford?

HD: Absolutely. We’re dealing with that in Georgia, and, really, all 50 states are. A conversation that’s occurring in Arkansas and everywhere else in the country is how we make sure we maintain the quality of our institution but maintain the affordability. 

One thing I’m very much committed to is thinking about every time you are considering passing on a tuition increase, can you really defend the difference that dollar is going to make in the classroom? … At the same time, there are a lot of families that really feel like they are being priced out of pursuing a degree … We’ve got to remain committed to making sure we’re thinking about affordability broadly. That doesn’t just include tuition; it’s thinking about things like textbook costs …. One of the things I’ve done in Georgia is our Affordable Learning Georgia project. After two years, we’ve already got a collective $16 million dollars of savings we can document. I’m looking forward to UCA being able to partner in that project.

AB: Why are there so many college and university administrators, why are their salaries so high, and what can be done?

HD: That’s something that, in addition thinking more broadly than tuition and fees, we can look at. Are we controlling expenses? If you can find a way to move a dollar from administrative costs to the classroom, then you just did something to maintain your efficiencies in terms of how you’re using your dollars, which then leads to the ability to be more affordable. That is something I am very much committed to. 

One thing that I’ll be interested in, from the very beginning, is looking at our ratio of administration costs to our education and general budget, administrative costs to faculty costs, and looking at that, not only compared to peers in Arkansas but to national data sets … and how do we begin developing a metric to where you’re a leader in terms of that ratio?

AB: Who was your best teacher or professor and what did he learn from that person?

HD: Don Carson, he was on the faculty [of the University of Memphis] and served as vice president for student affairs, probably no one has shaped me as a professional more than him. Its gets to how I treat people … My parents taught me to always be respectful of others, to listen more than I talk. Growing up, I was always told that’s why you have two ears and one mouth. To really try and understand the challenge and interest of others who are also engaged in that challenge or opportunity … I think I’ve always been comfortable in my skin, that I don’t always have to be the smartest person in the room. I can check my ego at the door. I like finding a way to surround myself with people who do know more about the subject than I do because, generally, what I’ve found is the better idea comes from multiple voices and thought processes than from just me working unilaterally … I’m big on the empowerment of others, but with empowerment comes that accountability too.

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