BY HANNAH JOHNSON
The University of North Texas President Neal Smatresk celebrates the opening of the new Frisco Landing campus in 2022.
ALEX REECE COMMUNITY IMPACT
UNT President Neal Smatresk re ects on 10 years in role
organizational issues. It was kind of like the biggest school you’ve never heard of. We laid out an ambi- tious plan; we got our nances gured out, and we said we’re going to be a top-ranked university. What has been your proudest achievement during your time as president? My proudest achievements are making this a campus that students want to go to. This is a caring campus. It was something I saw when I rst got here, and it’s something that’s precious. Why was it important for UNT to help close the gap between higher education and industry with UNT Frisco? The future of work has never been more uncer- tain. Careers are changing, [and] who people are hiring is changing. The people entering the work- force have very di erent expectations than they did
20, 30 [and] 40 years ago. We need to track what major corporations are doing, and we need to be in touch with what they want out of the workforce. The best way to do that is to engage them in our educational process. What do you envision for the future of Frisco Landing? I envision a campus of about 10,000 students on it. We’re about a third of the way there. I think the next phase of our evolution [is] we need a residence hall and dining hall. We need some recreational sports, [and] we need more clubs. I want to ll the campus during the day as well as at night.
The University of North Texas President Neal Smatresk announced he will resign from his position Aug. 1. Smatresk spoke with Community Impact about his time as president. Answers have been edited for length and clarity. How has the university changed since you took on the role in 2014? When I got here, I saw that it was a vibrant campus with a caring community, but there were some nancial troubles, [and] there were some
The full interview with Smatresk can be read online at communityimpact.com .
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