Amberton University President Carol Palmer stepped into her new position June 1, according to a university news release. In the months since, every day has been a little bit different, she said.
“Right now I'm spending a lot of time looking at the future of our academic programs and building a new strategic plan and seeing where we want to go from here,” Palmer said.
Palmer is the university system’s third president and second female president. She first joined Amberton University as an adjunct business professor in 2010 before working her way up to full-time and eventually served as an Amberton University dean, director and vice president.
“I follow in pretty large footsteps,” she said. “I feel very honored for that but I also have my own plan and my own thoughts about where we can take the university from here going forward.”
Staying competitive
Amberton University started offering online classes in the mid-1990s, which meant an easy adjustment when the COVID-19 pandemic forced education to go virtual, and recently began offering a hybrid project management degree for Frisco students, Palmer said.
“We’re offering what the workplace needs,” she said.
The university will begin offering an Applied Artificial Intelligence for Business course this winter and incorporate conversations about AI in all of its classes starting in 2025.
“Artificial intelligence is huge in our world,” Palmer said. “We're looking at how we teach our students to work with it and not work against it because it's here to stay.”
Looking ahead
Other future offerings include a heavier emphasis on information technology, counseling and skills certifications. Palmer said officials either add new university courses or update existing ones frequently to move with the changing times and stay modern.
University officials, including Palmer, will also look at increasing community outreach and letting people know about the university, which has seen tens of thousands of graduates and third-generation students choose to continue their education there, Palmer said.
“I see some things changing for us,” Palmer said. “Probably more modernization than anything else, but I definitely want to keep the special culture that we already have here at Amberton.”
Some context
Amberton University was founded in Garland in 1971 as a nondenominational Christian institution, meaning the institution itself is Christian-based but it does not restrict admission or graduation based on religion, Palmer said. The institution’s Frisco campus, located on Parkwood Boulevard, opened in 2007.
Despite operating in Frisco for nearly two decades, not many people seem to know about it, Palmer said.
“We’re kind of a well-kept secret, like a little hidden gem that we would love more people to know about,” she said. “We've been here for so long but I think sometimes people miss that.”
The university is slightly different from other local higher education options, like the University of North Texas, in other ways as well, she said. Classes are mostly online, mostly for graduate programs and geared toward working adults. The campuses themselves are commuter-only and do not offer dorm rooms, any sports or any student clubs.
“The culture here has always been to have a university that is accessible to everyone and anyone ... that price doesn't become a barrier for them,” Palmer said. “The vast majority of our students, more than fifty percent of our students, pay as they go, so they graduate with no student debt and we've been doing that model for fifty years.”
