New UNT president Smatresk ready to get down to business

[Harry]

The University of North Texas System Board of Regents voted unanimously today to name Dr. Neal Smatresk president of UNT, effective Feb. 3.

Smatresk, 62, will succeed V. Lane Rawlins, who announced in March that he planned to retire at the end of 2013.

The first thing Smatresk will do is a lot of listening, he told me in an interview after the vote.

“I need to find out what people’s hopes and dreams are inside the university, but as importantly, I need to really engage the community,” he said.

Smatresk’s main message to the business community: UNT is open for business.

"We want to listen and we want to be the best partner that you ever had," he said.

Smatresk, who joins UNT after serving as president of the University of Nevada Las Vegas for four years, said he plans to build on the 36,000-student Denton university’s reputation as an emerging nationally prominent research institution.

Smatresk will focus on building stronger community partnerships, strengthening UNT’s research, scholarship and artistic endeavors and continuing to expand the quality of its student body and faculty.

As an example of the type of partnership he will pursue, Smatresk said working with the semiconductor sector will be a priority.

“Advanced sciences and material sciences are creating a revolution in areas like energy, microelectronics and other computing,” he said.

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2013/12/new-unt-president-smatresk-ready-to.html

[MeanGreenTexan]

The University of North Texas System Board of Regents voted unanimously today to name Dr. Neal Smatresk president of UNT, effective Feb. 3.

Smatresk, 62, will succeed V. Lane Rawlins, who announced in March that he planned to retire at the end of 2013.

The first thing Smatresk will do is a lot of listening, he told me in an interview after the vote.

“I need to find out what people’s hopes and dreams are inside the university, but as importantly, I need to really engage the community,” he said.

Smatresk’s main message to the business community: UNT is open for business.

"We want to listen and we want to be the best partner that you ever had," he said.

Smatresk, who joins UNT after serving as president of the University of Nevada Las Vegas for four years, said he plans to build on the 36,000-student Denton university’s reputation as an emerging nationally prominent research institution.

Smatresk will focus on building stronger community partnerships, strengthening UNT’s research, scholarship and artistic endeavors and continuing to expand the quality of its student body and faculty.

As an example of the type of partnership he will pursue, Smatresk said working with the semiconductor sector will be a priority.

“Advanced sciences and material sciences are creating a revolution in areas like energy, microelectronics and other computing,” he said.

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2013/12/new-unt-president-smatresk-ready-to.html

Homeboy already has an aggressive plan. I bet it includes athletics. I have a feeling we're going to have a very clear love-or-hate with this guy by the end of 2014.

[Cerebus]

Smatresk’s main message to the business community: UNT is open for business.

"We want to listen and we want to be the best partner that you ever had," he said.

Reaching out to and getting Denton and the greater North Texas area is exactly what the University needs right now. Smatresk has a good track record of this with UNLV, and if he can do it here he will go down as a great president.

[Ben Gooding]

Dont negate the possibility of a baseball team coming to the school, keep enrollment at its level, support RV 100%, and I think increasing acceptance standards into UNT, etc. There are hundreds of positives that can be done. On the athletic side of the house, just don't get in RV's way. Expediting construction around campus would be absolutely outstanding. Reaching out to the Denton area would be great, more importantly reaching out to the DFW area would be great. This school has been sitting here for almost 124 years and people that live in the metroplex still ask, "where is North Texas at again?"

[PlummMeanGreen]

Reaching out to and getting Denton and the greater North Texas area is exactly what the University needs right now. Smatresk has a good track record of this with UNLV, and if he can do it here he will go down as a great president.

Spot on, Mr C! We have no choice in this conference but to do just that.

Yall ever run track? Well, a certain Lone Star State based school has become our new rabbit whether we like it or not and it will be the one school that many on this board will eventually begin to compare our regular season attendance to for the next few crucial years. I'd bet Dr. Smatresk already knows those numbers already.

Had North Texas just copy cat'ed what out-going CUSA school ECU did the last 30 years the Big 12 could have very well had us on their short list. IMHO...........DeLoss Dodds reluctantly rubber-stamped a second ex SWC private school for their membership addition. (Of course, bet ol' DeLoss already had his retirement date set when all that took place and didn't care as much as to who the Big 12 added to take TAMU's place, either).

GMG!

Edited December 12, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen