Dr. Chuck Welch ‘Refining and Redefining’ Arkansas State University

Dr. Charles L. “Chuck” Welch has already had a near-lifetime of achievement for many university presidents and he’s only in his first year.

The Jonesboro native now heading the Jonesboro-based Arkansas State University System tells Talk Business that the time is right for the university to refine and re-define its mission and image.

“I think we are refining it from the standpoint of making sure we build off our strong history. We don’t want to undo any of the great things that have been done at ASU in the last 100 years,” Welch said. “At the same time, we do feel like we need to build off that history and tradition and redefine the institution. We want people to realize we’re not the ASU of 20 years ago, we’re going to push the envelope and do things people never thought we were going to do before. We want to be an institution that’s recognized for having an extraordinarily strong student body. We have the strongest, most talented freshman class that we’ve ever had. We want to continue that.”

Welch said that the school’s athletic program is part of the image shift.

This summer, ASU hired Guz Malzahn as its head football coach. Malzahn was the high-profile offensive coordinator during Auburn University’s magical 2010 college football championship season led by Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton.

Already, Malzahn has uplifted ASU’s profile in-state and nationally. In early September, ASU unveiled plans for a new privately-funded $22 million football facility project, a two-level football operations building and 76,000 square-foot indoor practice facility.

“We’ve been talking a lot about taking this university to the next level. We’ve been talking about it from the context of athletics, but it really extends to the entire university,” Welch said. “What that means is raising the profile of the university both on a statewide level as well as a national level. We’re going to do that through increased research opportunities, a stronger student body, through enhancing our academic reputation, through the athletics aspect of it, and from being a much more progressive and aggressive university – one that is recognized for excellence in multiple areas.”

ASU has campuses and additional sites at Jonesboro, Beebe, Heber Springs, Jacksonville, Marked Tree, Mountain Home, Newport, Paragould, and Searcy.

With 13,893 enrolled this fall, full-time undergraduate enrollment has reached an all-time high of 10,205 in Jonesboro and the numbers for ASU’s other campuses are still trickling in.

Welch mentioned “research” multiple times in an interview earlier this week. He sees several niche opportunities for ASU in the area that could re-position the school’s contributions to its mission and the state’s economy.

“We feel like we’re in a unique position as the second largest university in the state and because of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute,” Welch explains.

He views opportunities for ASU researchers to make significant advancements in agriculture, engineering, biofuels and biomedical fields.

“We want to focus on areas that will have great impact to Arkansas and on a nationwide basis,” Welch said. “Historically, we have been a teaching-based institution — which will always be a critical part of our mission — we feel like it’s time to expand that and get much more into the research areas that are going to influence our teaching and allow the in-classroom learning experience to have more of that research component.”