The UNT System board of regents unanimously appointed him July 1. Keller succeeds Neal Smatresk, who led the university for the past decade.
Keller previously served as the commissioner and CEO of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board since 2019. The board is a state agency that helps Texans obtain a postsecondary education and oversees higher education policy. Before he was commissioner, Keller was a faculty member and administrator of the University of Texas.
Keller spoke with Community Impact about his priorities as university president and his goals for UNT’s future. Answers have been edited for length, style and clarity.
How have your first few weeks as president been?
It's been really amazing. The welcome from folks on campus, from the community, from [UNT at] Frisco [and] donors, has been very warm. I've really enjoyed getting to know the campus and getting to know people here at UNT. I've spent a lot of time, especially my first six weeks or so, in one-on-one meetings with all the deans, all the vice presidents, some of our department chairs [and] the student leaders.
What priorities do you have for UNT that you would like to accomplish in your first year?
There are three areas that emerged as important priorities where we need to do some deeper work. First is around how we budget. We need to make sure that we're budgeting the dollars that have been entrusted to us by students and their families and by the state of Texas as effectively and efficiently as we can. We're working on a new strategic budgeting process with the aim of putting that into its first iteration in implementing this new process starting in January. There needs to be a much clearer, more transparent connection between our priorities and how we're budgeting our resources.
The second area is around research. Our state policymakers created a new endowment to lift more Texas institutions into that top tier of research universities in the nation and in the world. We want to make sure that we're spending those effectively and efficiently in line with their intended purpose, which is to grow our research and discovery and innovation mission. We want to work on research that really makes a difference for our region and for the state of Texas.
The third area that we're working on is around student success. We need to commit to students that they're going to succeed. Not just in completing a program, but in having the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, the skills [and] the credentials that will help them land a good job and will give them the momentum they need into their careers. We need to make sure that our students are equipped with what they need to be competitive in tomorrow's workforce.
What goals do you have for Frisco Landing?
We are already making a few changes around our approach for Frisco. Some of the goals are to be much more closely engaged with our employers, with the city, with the Economic Development Corporation and with other stakeholders in Frisco. The workforce needs are changing incredibly fast. All those employers are asking where the talent is going to come from. It's important that we work closely with employers to understand how their workforce needs are changing and then feed that information back into our design programs, into our plans for what kinds of degrees [and] executive and professional education we provide in Frisco. We don't just want to provide programs, we want to help solve problems.
What are some of the challenges higher education is facing right now?
The basic design of most universities was for a time when only about a third of your population had a college degree [and] when higher education was something that people did to advance their standard of living, not to maintain their standard of living. The requirements have completely changed. In Texas, more than 92% of the net new jobs require some kind of education and training beyond a high school diploma.
Higher education is not built to make rapid changes. Most institutions are better at slow, steady, incremental changes, and that's at odds with the pace of change in the economy. We have to change too, within the university. We have to be more nimble. We have to rethink some of our traditional structures that slow us down. We have to be willing to try new things and be open to the fact that not everything's going to work out, and be ready to pivot and improve what we're doing when things aren't working.
Are there any changes that students or the community can expect under your leadership at the university?
One of the changes I made in the first month was in the constitution of the [President’s Cabinet]. The President's Cabinet now includes deans, the chairs of the staff senate and the faculty senate. It includes the presidents of the Student Government Association and Graduate Student Council. In our first few meetings with the expanded cabinet, I think we've had much better and candidly more fun conversations just having these other perspectives around the table. I'm establishing a president's Student Advisory Council. That's going to be really important to help me stay closely connected with students.
This is a time that is incredibly exciting for UNT and for higher education, but we have to be willing to get behind the innovators. Get behind the faculty who are willing to do things differently and approach teaching and learning differently and innovate new courses and programs. We have to be willing to engage students as co-authors and co-creators of new kinds of educational experiences.
What are you most excited about in your new role?
There is so much potential here at UNT. Some of that is because of the economy in our region and growth in population in North Texas and the trajectory of growth at the university. What's most exciting is the people and the openness to innovation. There's excitement about where we can go as a university, and so I'm so blessed to be here. Every day I come to the university, I'm so humbled and excited to be able to do this job. There's truly no place I would rather be than UNT.
