Providing Transformational Opportunities for Graduate Students

JP: Welcome to Short Talks from the Hill, a research and economic development podcast from the University of Arkansas. I’m John Post, and my guest today is Curt Rom, interim dean of the Graduate School and International Education. Rom became dean at the beginning of this year after six years as associate dean for international education. He previously served as interim dean of the Honors College from 2014-2015. A native of Fayetteville and a lifelong Razorback, Rom is a past Fulbright Fellow and served as a Presidential Fellow for the Association of International Education Administrators. Thank you for joining me, Dean Rom.

Curt Rom

In 2002, doctoral education at the University of Arkansas was forever changed when the Graduate School and International Education established the Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships and Doctoral Academy Fellowships. These nationally competitive fellowships were established with two goals in mind: to provide transformational opportunities for graduate students and conduct research that would drive economic development in Arkansas and improve the lives of those in our state, country and world.

This year, the university celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the establishment of the fellows. Dean Rom, could you talk a little about the history of these fellowships and what led to them being established?

CR: Definitely John, and thanks for inviting me today. So in 2002, as part of the Campaign for the 21^st Century, a gift of $300 million was given to the University of Arkansas from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. This was a transformational gift – at the time, it was the largest gift given to a public university. The gift had three goals on mind: one was to create and support an Honors College, a second was to support our library because of its importance in our research mission, and the third component was to establish the Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships and the Doctoral Academy Fellowships.

In the original documents for that gift agreement, the goal of the gift was to elevate the University of Arkansas to the top tier of research universities in the United States by providing and attracting top graduate talent from across the state of Arkansas, the region, and frankly, around the world. The idea was by providing these kind of fellowships and attracting this top talent and placing them across important fields of discovery and innovation at the university, it was equivalent to the idea that “high tide raises all ships.” That when you put a top scholar in a laboratory or a studio or an innovation enterprise, everybody around them gets lifted up by that talent.

JP: So how have these fellowships help the University of Arkansas expand graduate education on campus?

CR: So in the history, approximately 700 Doctoral Academy Fellowships and Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships have been granted. They come into the university and they’re contributing in our laboratories and our studios. And again, these are the innovators that are driving science and innovation and entrepreneurship at the institution. They’re supporting our faculty and our research enterprise. Because of these students, we have become a top-tier institution, now ranked as a Carnegie Research 1 institution, which is the top 3-4% of all research universities in the United States.

One of the limitations to graduate education is financial support. The university provides a base funding of stipends, but the fellowships are added on top of our base fellowship which makes our stipends and fellowships financially competitive with almost any other university in the United States. That’s how we attract top talent. When we did that, then that actually attracted other students because of the reputation of our graduate programs. So, since the beginning of the gift in 2002, the Graduate School has grown by approximately 75 percent – 75 percent more graduate students. That’s both due to our increased capacity, but also to the increased reputation of our graduate programs. And that was because of the doctoral fellowships that were given.

JP: So a major goal of the establishment of these fellowships was to leverage our research to drive economic development and improve quality of life in the state. What successes has the university seen on that front through these fellowships?

CR: Well, a number of the Doctoral Academy Fellows or the Distinguished Doctoral Fellows are working on projects that are very relevant to the state of Arkansas, whether that be a business or engineering or an environmental science or agriculture kind of problem. So, the research they’re doing, in combination with their faculty mentors, are solving real-world problems with science-based information to help elevate Arkansas.

A number of these Doctoral Academy Fellows and Distinguished Doctoral Fellows have become entrepreneurs based on the technology innovations and discoveries they made in their laboratories. They’ve taken that on to become private business or used that technology to support existing businesses in the state of Arkansas. All of that is helping to elevate the economic status of the state and helps increase the economic viability of our state.

A number of our Doctoral Fellows are working on problems related to quality of life, whether that would be nutrition, diet, health and science – looking at life quality aspects. And the science, technology that they’re discovering or creating is being applied in medical fields, nutritional fields, and even across our agricultural enterprise to have a more vibrant, viable sustainable food system.

JP: What sorts of opportunities have alumni moved onto after graduating from these fellowships?

CR: When our students graduate with these fellowships, they’ve had tremendous opportunities. They were top graduate students coming in, and they’re top graduates when they leave. They’re wanted across the country. So we see our graduates of our Distinguished Doctoral program or Doctoral Academy program are being employed at universities across the state of Arkansas – every university and college including the University of Arkansas. We find them in our major school districts in Arkansas. And at both the universities, colleges and public-school systems, they’re providing educational resource as well as the kind administrative leadership that helps move education in the state of Arkansas forward.

They’re becoming employed with a range of Arkansas companies. We will see them essentially salt-and-peppered across all of the major corporations of Arkansas, including a number of the Fortune 500 companies that are located inside of Arkansas. We see the talent that have graduated being employed at top universities in the United States such as Harvard, Emory, Johns Hopkins, and other universities, as well as a number of major international universities. Because of their involvement in research, science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, they’ve been hired by companies, and now we find our graduates working across the globe, whether it be in an international university or for multinational corporations and being located internationally. So the graduates of this program, a number have stayed inside of the state of Arkansas, a majority have stayed inside of the US, but we see the success of those students actually scattered across the globe.

JP: What does the future of these fellowships look like moving forward?

CR: I think that the future of this fellowship program is quite bright. Because of the level of fellowships we give, and the level of stipends that we have, our total stipend and fellowship we can offer to graduate students mean we can still compete across any institution in the United State – still able to attract top talent.

Although the initial gift created a set of fellowships, the success of that fellowship program has created the opportunity for colleges and departments to use their philanthropy to ask and raise money for additional fellowships. So we see a range of other fellowships that are modeled on our Graduate School fellowships that are now emerging in colleges. So not only are we attracting the set number that we created with the gift in 2002, but this has expanded about 50 percent across campus with additional extramural fundraising as donors and alumni have seen the success of the program. They want to create additional success through their philanthropic gifts.

JP: Thanks again for joining me on the podcast today, Dean Rom.

CR: Thank you for inviting me, John. It’s been a delightful conversation.

Matt McGowan: Short Talks from the Hill is available wherever you get your podcasts. For more information and additional podcasts, visit arkansasresearch.uark.edu, the home of research and economic development news at the University of Arkansas. Music for Short Talks from the Hill was written and performed by local musician Ben Harris.