SPRING 2010 - The University of Texas-Pan American

RESEARCHNelsen (far left) is shown at age 12 with this father andtwo brothers. Mike is a police officer. His brother Randy(far right) owned a construction company and wasunfortunately killed in a backhoe accident. Nelsen’sfather delivered milk in the morning, worked sheet metalin the afternoon and labored on his smaller Utah ranchat night before moving his family to a 1,000-acre ranchin Montana.The 11-year-old Nelsen is atop Penny, one of the twocutting horses the family had on their ranch. Penny, bornon the famed King Ranch in Texas, was the horse usedto ride long distances to round up stray cows. In the rearis his family’s Montana house, where he grew up. It sitson property that was once a Pony Express post.A well-worn saddle in the executive office of Dr. Robert S. Nelsen exemplifies the new UTPA president’sunassuming nature as well as his upbringing on a remote ranch in Montana. The saddle, which once belongedto Calamity Jane, was given to Nelsen when he was a boy by an old family friend.While in Chicago, Nelsen and another parent ran a LittleLeague program that included more than 500 children.Nelsen is shown following a game, hugging the catcher,he and Jody’s only child Seth, who tragically died in2005 at age 25.Dr. Francisco Cigarroa (left), chancellor of The Universityof Texas System, visits with new UTPA President Robert S.Nelsen and his wife, Jody, after introducing them to theUniversity community in November. Nelsen was chosenby the UT System Board of Regents as UTPA’s eighthpresident at a board meeting on Nov. 11, 2009.Los Arcos 14>>Continued from page 13transparency and shared governance.“I think my experience as a faculty leaderwill make a difference here. I understand wherethe faculty is coming from. I understand theimportance of what the faculty is doing. Iunderstand the importance of teaching. When Iwrote the strategic plan at UT Dallas, I wrote itwith the contributions of more than 200 facultyand staff members. My goal is to build consensuson campus and a joint sense of purpose,” he said.Nelsen, who has kept up a busy schedule ofmeeting as many government, business, and civicleaders across the Valley as possible in his threemonths on the job, says he is impressed withthe regional mentality here and the “can do”attitude. He hopes to remain accessible to notonly community leaders but also to faculty andstudents. He has established 3-5 p.m. office hourson Fridays for students, so he can learn of theirconcerns and ideas personally.He is especially interested in securing morebuildings for the growing population ofstudents, particularly in science and engineering,and investigating the problem of sophomoreretention.“We are losing a huge chunk – 43 percent ofthe students between their sophomore and junioryears,” he said.If you ask about his vision for UTPA, Nelsenwill clearly tell you – to build upon the university’sstrengths to help the Valley.“I want the university to be a powerhousein these fields – advanced manufacturing/engineering, health care and research in healthcare disparities, education with a specialemphasis on bilingual education, and business,focusing particularly on border issues andentrepreneurship. All of them wrap around theValley – this is what the Valley needs,” he said.However, the new UTPA president believesthe process will require collaborations,cooperation, partnerships and what he calls atransdisciplinary approach.“Take health care for example. We can work onobesity and diabetes but not just confine it in theCollege of Health Sciences and Human Services.We are finding out that Type II diabetes isgenerated by behavior. So we have to involve thesociologist, the political scientist who can writelaws, the psychologist who can intervene, and themarketing people who will talk about sugar. Thewhole university has to rally around health care,”he explained. “We can’t build silos. We have togo beyond the normal disciplines so we can dothings new in the Valley that have never beendone before.”Up to the challenge as he gets used to his newsaddle as UTPA’s chief “cowhand,” Nelsen saidhe feels the “fit” his colleagues talked about andknows now what he’d like his legacy to be.“I want people to say that I was a great partner,”he said.