ASU System President focused on opportunities for change

Dr. Brendan Kelly, Arkansas State University System President, has been traveling the state his first eight months on the job. Has he seen any changes?

“I’ve seen about 50,000 miles on a vehicle throughout the state of Arkansas. I mean, two days ago I woke up in Mountain Home. I had lunch in Jonesboro and dinner in Hot Springs. So we really have been all over the state, and that’s intentional,” said Kelly, a guest on this week’s Capitol View and Talk Business & Politics. “We’re in a new place. We’re trying to learn about the people and the communities and the institutions and really understand why students attend what they’re looking for, who is working within the system to provide those opportunities and understand the communities and economies that we’re affecting too.”

“But in terms of change, yes, there’s a lot of change on the horizon, and some of that’s just because higher education needs to change and we need to go and meet the moment of the 21st century and stop worrying about preserving the way in which we’ve always done things. We have a whole new generation of students who want to receive education differently, and we have to meet those needs and expectations,” he said.

Kelly became the third president of the Arkansas State University System in September 2024 after being selected by the ASU System Board of Trustees in June earlier that year. He joined ASU after serving as president of the University of West Georgia in Carrollton and he also did stints at the University of South Carolina and the University of West Florida.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in public relations and a Master of Arts degree in communication at Eastern Michigan University and his Doctor of Philosophy in communication at Wayne State University.

Kelly understands that higher education is undergoing fundamental changes in part due to demographics, in part due to technology, and in part due to cultural and societal shifts.

“I’ll tell you, the 20th century was rooted in building institutions inside of higher education. That was the whole focus: ‘how many can we get and how big can we make them?’ And now it’s going to be about ecosystems because learning has changed. I mean, we carry with us supercomputers. An iPhone has more computing power and access to information than supercomputers of the 1980s. And that changes our landscape because we’re no longer about the dissemination of information, we’re about the creation of understanding the ability to problem solve, filling a student’s toolbox with a different set of skills and an ability to continue to learn how to use new tools, how to integrate AI tools into work. I think higher education is going to be about creating value for others. That’s what a postgraduate will be. There’ll be a value creator for others, specifically for employers,” he said.

He also predicts that customization in higher education will be at the forefront of delivery in the near-future.

“It’s going to change the look and feel of the student experience. It’ll be much more customized to the individual rather than to large groups. And it will change the way we deliver our business too, because we will start to find opportunity and unification of services, try to streamline business processes to make them as inexpensive and effective and efficient as possible so that we can focus on our core mission, which is the experience that students are having and that connection to employers,” Kelly said.

ACCESS ACT, VET SCHOOL
One of this legislative session’s signature laws revolved around changes in higher education. The ACCESS Act, supported by Gov. Sarah Sanders, overhauls the funding formula for colleges and universities and affects other aspects of campus life.

For Kelly, he’s pleased higher ed was a priority for the governor, but he knows there are still many rules and regulations to complete its implementation.

“I’d start with the fact that Governor Sanders – she could focus on anything – she chose to focus on education and higher education. So I’m grateful to have a governor who is interested and passionate about those subjects,” he said. “I would also note that as that legislation was being introduced, she spent a lot of time coming and socializing that agenda with us personally, which I haven’t seen out of governors in past. So there was a lot of intentionality around that to try to create a sense of teamness.”

“At the end of the day, the state of Arkansas needs more higher education. They need more people participating in higher education, more credentials of value on the street. And ACCESS tries to affect change in a number of the verticals where more people can participate,” he added.

Kelly also discussed the new veterinary school that ASU is launching in the fall of 2026. The $33.2 million, 56,000-square-foot facility will feature laboratories, a surgical skills training area, flexible classrooms, study spaces, and around-the-clock clinical skills practice areas. It will one of only 35 veterinary schools in the U.S.

“I will tell you it’s a big opportunity for America,” said Kelly. “We have too few veterinary schools in the United States and a huge shortage of veterinarians. So us being able to contribute to making America better is a huge opportunity for Arkansas, especially being a state that’s rooted in an agricultural economy. We can affect positive change. I mean, the veterinary school at A-State is a game changer for the state. We’re having a public university, a flagship campus that has both a medical school and a veterinary school is rare, and I don’t mean just singularly in the state of Arkansas, but that’s rare in the United States.”

In the last decade, the ASU System has added Henderson State University, Mid-South Community College (now ASU Mid-South) and College of the Ouachitas (now ASU Three Rivers) to its umbrella of colleges and universities. When asked if the ASU System might be looking for more opportunities to expand, Kelly said he hopes so.

“I would love to see that footprint grow only because I believe very strongly that the more ability we have to affect positive change in people’s lives, to get people connected to economic prosperity and opportunity that only higher education can provide is a mission that I’m really passionate about. And I believe that the way in which we’re delivering that through our constellation of institutions right now would only be made better if that constellation grows,” he said.

You can watch Kelly’s full interview in the video below.