As my family gathered to admire the thrilling fireworks and creative drone light shows that filled the evening skies over North Texas earlier this month, we were filled with a sense of pride and joy that comes with realizing the special milestone of this month of July, in particular. You see, the start of July this year marked our one-year anniversary of our family joining the Mean Green family alongside my one-year anniversary of proudly serving our outstanding faculty, students, staff, and alumni as executive dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences.
To mark this momentous occasion, I had the opportunity to sit down for a bit of Q&A to reflect on this past year serving CLASS and the Mean Green.
Q: What have you enjoyed most about the first year at UNT and in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences?
A: That's easy - the people! I've been impressed - not surprisingly - by the sense of passion and purpose that our students, faculty, and alumni exude daily. I've truly enjoyed finding out about the many expertise of faculty as well as the interests and skills being developed and refined by our students across all our disciplines and program areas in the college.
Q: Has there been anything that has surprised you this first year that you may not have expected?
A: I've been blessed to serve in various administrative roles in higher education before this. And yet while I know it's only been a year, I guess I would first say that I've been surprised by how rewarding it feels to serve in this role considering how demanding the role can be at times. The demands and degree of responsibility have been rather expected with some minor exceptions along the way [smiling]. It's a surprise to no one that there are opportunities and challenges found at every turn. And still, I could never have anticipated how rewarding it has felt to see a student proud to share their research findings after working with member of our faculty, or give the CLASS commencement speech to their peers, or stop me in the hallway to tell me about the transformational advising meeting they just had with a member of our award-winning advising team. Oftentimes convening meetings where there are many complex ideas, compelling analyses, and opinions to be shared can be challenging. And again, the rewarding feelings after sometimes challenging and long periods of discussions that eventually lead to finding common ground and paths forward that best serve our many stakeholders is a feeling I will never tire of or take for granted.
But there has been nothing more surprising to me than the campus squirrels!!! Seriously, it's the squirrels. I often chuckle to see how friendly our squirrel population is. People feed the squirrels all year long on campus. And often I have a squirrel or two or three follow me at the end of the day as I leave the building heading to my truck. The squirrels have it. They are the most unexpected surprise. I welcome any squirrel snack recommendations from those willing to share.
Q: This first year has certainly involved its fair share of activity. What are some accomplishments that you've been proud of in the past year?
A: An overarching priority for CLASS is to enhance our research infrastructure, increase grant proposal submissions, increase external rewards received, and elevate our overall impact. As I came into the college, I recognized an opportunity to elevate the profile and commitment to research, discovery and creative activity across the college that builds on existing strengths and aims to seize new opportunities. Appointing our new associate dean for research in the college is going to lead to a very bright future for our faculty and students for which CLASS alumni will be proud.
Our department chairs have been amazing to work with over my first year. And several from this past year are departing their role as chair going into next year as their terms come to a close or retirement calls.And several from this past year are leaving their role as chair going into next year as their terms end or retirement calls. So, identifying new leadership for several departments has been a priority in year one. And I'm proud of the leadership team that has been assembled to serve us over the next several years.
Because I transitioned to UNT from another university, I set out early in the year, as any dean would, to gain a greater understanding of our university budget process. It was important to me to develop a manner to better share our college budget with our faculty and staff. I was thrilled - okay, thrilled as one can possibly be while discussing anything about budget - to have the opportunity to present our state of the college budget at our spring assemblies for faculty and staff. I am hopeful that this effort allowed for greater understanding of our college and university budget process as we continue to enhance the experience of our faculty, staff, and students whenever possible.
I charged a taskforce to explore and engage in deliberate conversations regarding the infrastructure of CLASS. I'm proud of the critical dialogue, thoughtfulness and care the taskforce took to lead these discussions and gather input from across the college this past year before making their recommendations for a reorganized college.
The challenges and opportunities facing institutions of higher education are vast. As the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences faces many variations of these issues in similar or unique ways, bringing in resources to address and overcome such challenges and opportunities is mission critical. The college had one of its best years fundraising this past year which has been instrumental in laying a great foundation for the next. I'm proud of our Mean Green who have continued to stay connected and become ambassadors for the tremendous future of CLASS and UNT. So many have been exceedingly generous to give of their time, talents, and treasures in to support of CLASS soaring to new heights in the state of Texas and beyond. I'm immensely proud and thankful for all that they have and continue to show their support through giving.
Q: Can you share a little bit about a few developments taking shape this next year based on what you learned in the first year?
A: Absolutely! There are several developments to speak of that are debuting next year that I think will make a big difference in developing support for our faculty, students, and staff in the college. This past March, we first announced the appointment of Dr. Steve Wolverton to lead our college's reimagined and innovative faculty development initiatives. As director of faculty initiatives for the college, Dr. Wolverton has planned a series of early career development workshops for faculty and a signature faculty mentorship program that will strengthen our connections as a community of scholar-educators.
Faculty and students can also participate in new research-focused workshops covering topics like finding external funding, proposal writing, and grants management. Our academic departments will be able to request similar workshops for their graduate students. For undergraduates, we will be establishing departmental research ambassadors' program. Students will get new opportunities to work with our CLASS Career Center coaches to explore alternative experiential learning options to internships. In all, we're establishing more diverse options for students to meet their needs and interests.
Refining our program offerings to ensure we are continuously attracting students, aligning with their interests, and meeting their needs to prepare them for future industry opportunities is paramount. Three interesting developments of note for this coming year are:
The Department of Technical Communication is gearing up their efforts to develop an exciting micro-credential for future students focused on Workplace Writing Essentials. The tentative launch for this micro-credentialing opportunity is slated for Spring 2025.
Our Latino and Latin American studies major will be undergoing a bit of curricular reimagination to rejuvenate the aims of preparing our Mean Green undergraduates for diverse career paths while offering enlightened insights into the vast cultural, social and historical dimensions of Latinx communities. We are tremendously grateful to our past leadership in Dr. Valerie Martinez-Ebers for championing this program. We are equally enthusiastic for Dr. Diego Esparza to take the helm as the torch is passed to lead us into a new chapter of the program.
The Department of Spanish will be spending much of the next year developing new professions tracks that will enable students to eventually complete their degrees with industry specific certificates.
Stay tuned to these developments and much more!
Q: Anything else you are you looking forward to in year TWO?
A: Our college is poised for a remarkable future. Achieving this future, together, will require us to put in place a strategic plan that keeps us on track and moving forward with sound decisions driven by purpose and priority. In this next academic year, I'm looking forward to seeing our community of scholar-educators come together through a comprehensive process that allows us to assess and develop our strategic plan for the next chapter of success for CLASS. Through this process, I am fully confident that we will pull our CLASS community further together under our mission to Amplify Human Potential to Propel Transformation. It will be important that we engage this process to demonstrate clarity and meaningful impact.
After taking time in this first year to conduct some assessment of high needs across the college and to listen to the hopes and aspirations of our faculty, staff, students, and alums, I'm excited for the payoff of our team's preparation over the past year as we launch our Tomorrow, Now! engagement initiative this coming fall.
We have world-class dining services across the campus. I'm personally looking forward to finding time to discover new places to grab lunch on campus.
As the summer sessions begin to wind down and our new crop of students are filing through the campus walkways behind their new orientation leaders, I am both energized and humbled. Our progress made over the past year and the momentum built for the next fuels my eagerness for the next year. And still, I take that deep breath as I approach my desk each morning because I'm mindful of the responsibility and humbled by the opportunity to lead our college built by generations of those that have cared for and preserved the honor of this most wonderful college and institution.
Go Mean Green!
-Albert Bimper, Ph.D.
Executive Dean, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences