Chair Talk #10 February 2016
Chair Talk #10
Every so often it’s worth stepping back from a focus on what we are not doing well enough to recognize when we doing very well indeed. Just this afternoon the following data came across my desk:
| 1 | U. of Arizona | 28 |
| 2 | Oklahoma State U. at Stillwater | 25 |
| 3 | U. of California at Berkeley | 17 |
| 3 | U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 17 |
| 5 | Arizona State U. | 16 |
| 5 | U. of Oklahoma at Norman | 16 |
| 7 | U. of Kansas | 12 |
| 7 | U. of New Mexico at Albuquerque | 12 |
| 7 | U. of Wisconsin at Madison | 12 |
| 10 | U. of Texas at Austin | 11 |
| 10 | U. of Washington | 11 |
And what is it that we are #1 in the country at? Graduating Native Americans with PhDs in the years 2008-2014. First of all, a shout-out of congratulations and admiration to all of our colleagues at the UA who contributed to this outstanding performance – a real clear case of doing good by doing well.
But, these data were embedded in a story (in the Chronicle of Higher Ed) about how few PhDs are granted to Native Americans in the US at this point in history. This suggests to me that we have the track record and the infrastructure at the UA to do something that needs doing. Would it not make sense to see this as an opportunity to serve our community, while at the same time leveraging one of our existing strengths? Exactly what this would mean in terms of resource allocation is the issue of course, but the way I read these data whatever we spend would be wisely invested.
In these days of complicated narratives about campus climate it is heartening to see that there are also good stories here at the UA. It takes a lot of people doing lots of hard things to graduate 28 PhDs in a five-year period, across the institution. Well done!
Lynn Nadel