April 3, 2024

Faculty and Staff,

For the next few weeks, I will be sending out a weekly email on a different aspect of R1 to share information about the planning process, address questions or concerns you have raised, and highlight opportunities to get involved. To kick off the series, I am going to talk about what R1 is and what this goal means for UAF.

Back in 2018, we began the strategic planning process for UAF. Six strategic goals were established in a general form. Six teams of faculty, staff, and students were then empowered to assess, modify, and sharpen those goals. They were charged with addressing three questions about our position relative to the goal: 1) what do we want to be, 2) what are we now, and 3) how do we get from where we are to where we want to be. The teams did great work on all six strategic goals. And importantly to our path today, one of those goals was to attain R1 status.

R1 status, as defined by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, signifies the highest level of research activity among U.S. doctoral-granting universities. R1 has become the gold standard, the mark of the highest achieving research universities in the United States. For many years, the path to achieving R1 was a little opaque, and the bar universities had to meet each review cycle was a function of which other universities were seeking R1. So while many of UAF’s peers and competitors assumed we were already R1, we sat atop the R2 stack, just a smidge below the R1 bar.

In 2023, Carnegie released a new framework that simplified the process of determining R1. This new system did away with complicated metrics and moved to two simple categories: annual research expenditures and Ph.D. graduates. In order to attain R1, a university needs to have at least $50 million in annual research activity and an average of 70 doctoral degrees each year. UAF exceeds the annual research spend by about four times. However, we currently have only about half of the Ph.D. graduates we need. We have until 2026 (to make the 2027 review cycle) to bring those numbers up. The good news is that, thanks to the hard work of the students here and already working on their Ph.D.,  we are already projecting 70 Ph.D. graduates in 2025.

So beyond this classification, what does R1 really mean to an institution? What does it mean for UAF? For us, R1 is the next step in establishing ourselves as a nationally and internationally recognized research university. In turn, it is likely to attract more investors who can help us build modern facilities, laboratory space, and student housing to attract and retain the nation's best students. It will make us a more attractive destination for new faculty, staff, and students, ultimately positioning us to better serve the needs of UAF and Alaska. This tangible goal will also elevate our reputation, attracting business to Alaska’s economy. Reaching R1 has done this and more for other universities across the country. And while another big state (Texas) has 11 R1 universities, we will be Alaska’s first! It’s our time.

What have we done so far to get there? Decades of work have gone into establishing UAF as the world’s leader in Arctic science and getting us to a place where R1 is within reach. Most recently, UAF received enthusiastic support from the Board of Regents for our goal of achieving R1. UAF submitted a request to the legislature for $20M to increase the number of Ph.D. graduates by funding graduate student salaries. This request recently passed the House Finance Committee and I am optimistic that a version of this funding will move through the legislative process. Thank you to all who visited Juneau and contacted their legislators in support of UAF.

Last year, I appointed Taryn Lopez to chart our path to achieving and maintaining R1. Taryn has put together a 10-person steering committee and several working groups, bringing over 80 UAF employees into the planning process. For the past six months, these groups have been charged with developing and implementing the steps needed to get to R1.

As we continue on this path, we're focused on streamlining processes, improving communication, and fostering collaboration across the university. Simple steps like our recent graduate student enrollment process review and the launch of our R1 graduate student fellowship program are already making a difference.

We also hosted a Chancellor’s Forum on R1 in January (watch the recording here) talking about the “why” and are looking forward to hosting more events in the fall.

We know R1 is essential to ensure our success for the next century to come. We're not just chasing a designation; we're striving to become a world-class research university that sustains UAF and Alaska!

In the coming weeks, I will share more about how this  process of pursuing R1 is critical to transforming our university into the UAF of the future. Next Tuesday, I will share a message on how we plan to attain and sustain R1.

Thanks for choosing UAF.

Dan White, chancellor