R1 Perspectives: Improving UAF as a place to learn and work

“R1.” You’ve read about it and heard about it.

It’s UAF’s powerful effort to attain the top research classification of higher-education institutions from the The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. The classification system is widely regarded as the gold standard.

UAF far exceeds Carnegie’s research expenditure criteria but is short of the necessary number of Ph.D. graduates, so that’s where the effort is focused.

Now that you know it’s out there, it's fair for each person in the UAF community to wonder: “That’s really great, but what does R1 mean for me? And what should I do about it?”

You will hear some answers Tuesday, Nov. 19, at Chancellor Dan White’s “Chancellor’s Forum on R1.” 

At convocation this year, White asked attendees to vote on a forum topic. The crowd chose R1. 

The forum’s goal is to report to the UAF community the outcomes and next steps from the Oct. 17  R1 strategy workshop convened by the chancellor’s office and R1 Steering Committee, with support from Agnew::Beck Consulting.

The Nov. 19 forum on R1 will be from 1-2 p.m. in the Davis Concert Hall and livestreamed on the UAF YouTube channel. Questions will be taken in person and online during the event.

So, back to those questions about what R1 means for you and what you can do.

Aside from raising UAF’s national profile and bringing in more research dollars and students, striving for R1 is an opportunity to improve UAF as a workplace for staff and faculty and as a research and academic center for students.

How can it do that? 

Think of R1 as a giant lasso, with the chancellor using R1 to round up the ideas and concerns of students, staff and faculty so he and his team can work to resolve them. Many — perhaps most — of these indirectly relate to R1 and predate that effort.

Trying to reach R1 in the next Carnegie evaluation period provides the oomph needed to get a lot of things resolved.

What are some of the things that could get some attention under the R1 umbrella? Here are just a few of the many that surfaced at the Oct. 17 R1 strategy workshop attended by more than 60 people representing students, staff and faculty:

• Increasing gender diversity among full professors
• Insufficient number of graduate courses
• Increased staffing for graduate student support
• Better integration of research faculty into Ph.D. programs
• Opportunities for partner hires
• Improved mentoring
• More child care

That workshop provided great insight into the sense of the many populations that make up the UAF community. Some of the concerns and challenges raised at that workshop are being addressed through the $12.5 million R1 allocation approved by the Legislature and governor.

Here’s that breakdown:

• $8 million in Ph.D. student support. Of that, $3.4 million has been awarded this year to 84 UAF Ph.D. students in 17 programs.
• $3 million in faculty incentives to help faculty effectively mentor Ph.D. students.
• $1.25 million in staff and technology for thesis-writing support, graduate school support, international student support and for software to improve efficiencies.
• $250,000 for promotion, marketing and graduate student recruitment.

There’s still much to do. You can support the effort by simply understanding what’s in it for UAF and for you as a valuable part of our university and by joining the discussion.

As individuals, each of us is continually looking to improve, whether in knowledge, skills, financially, spiritually or in our relations with others.

Our university also continually strives to improve. Sometimes that effort is bumpy. Sometimes it seems slow. Even so, the desire to grow and thrive is always here.

Achieving top tier research status will be good for UAF. 

The effort to get there has already proved good for UAF. It has elevated discussion on lingering subjects and new ones. It has helped staff, students and faculty learn about each other’s aspirations and worries.

Over the past year, 80 people representing faculty, staff and students have worked on nine groups to help UAF advance to R1 status.

With continued attention to each other’s ideas and hopes, and in working with UAF’s administration, we can make our university an even better place to learn and work.

And that, really, is what going for R1 is all about.

R1 Perspectives is a periodic column written by members of the UAF community. Have an idea for a column? Pitch your idea to Cornerstone.

Rod Boyce is a member of one of the nine R1 working groups and participated in the Oct. 17 R1 strategy workshop. He is a science communicator and public information officer at the Geophysical Institute.