When Mark Zoran decided to apply for a faculty position at Texas A&M University in 1991, he only knew a few things about the school — one of them being the revolutionary work of the late George Bass, the father of systematic nautical archaeology.
“I likely knew him from reading stories in National Geographic, a childhood activity along with reading Classics Illustrated comics, which I enjoyed then and still do now. It’s odd, perhaps, that such a childhood exposure might in some way influence my recruitment or decision-making regarding such an important professional decision, but it did.”
Thirty-three years removed from that fateful choice, Zoran is now in his ninth month as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, tasked with charting the course for one of Texas A&M’s newest colleges and that of the disciplines that Bass and so many equally memorable luminaries have helped put on the academic map during the past century.
“The arts and the sciences are the heart of a comprehensive university,” Zoran reminded the crowd of faculty and staff gathered in the Memorial Student Center’s Bethancourt Ballroom on September 24 for his State of the College address. “These disciplines have been at the heart of Texas A&M University for a long time.
“The School of Arts and Sciences in the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College was created in 1924, 100 years ago. … In the 1960s, it was decided that the sciences would separate from the social sciences and humanities. Since then, many new disciplines and multidisciplinary programs, even departments, have been established. Then, in 2022, it was decided to reunite these many areas of the university’s fundamental scholarship and education. Therefore, in one sense, we are two years old. In another, we are a centennial college that has long been an integral component of Texas A&M’s mission.”
In outlining some of the college’s key strengths and opportunities, Zoran pointed to several progress indicators during the previous two years, perhaps none more critical than a broad faculty hiring initiative that has brought approximately 120 professors to the Arts and Sciences ranks and infused renewed energy and scholarship into what he describes as a shared vision for the future that hinges on collective strengths and disciplinary excellence.
“I believe that strong colleges start with strong departments and that preeminent colleges are more than the sum of their parts,” Zoran explained. “Our disciplines serve as the bedrock of higher education. We teach 72% of the [university’s] core curriculum and, through our service teaching of STEM and other gateway courses, 41% of the students we instruct are not seeking a degree from our college. In other words, the future success of many students leaving campus with an Aggie Ring depends on us, because all Texas A&M students are educated in part and prepared substantially by us.”
Zoran also celebrated a wide variety of accomplishments, including milestone anniversaries for Texas A&M Oceanography and Texas A&M Geology and Geophysics; new programs in bioinformatics, Jewish studies, global studies, and society, ethics and law; a new ClimaVision radar atop the David G. Eller Oceanography and Meteorology (O&M) Building; a pending expansion for the world-class Cyclotron Institute; and the university’s recent commitment to building a new $150 million building for Texas A&M Biology as well as supporting other significant infrastructure investments. At the same time, he acknowledged the numerous challenges and significant uncertainty facing the college since its inception, ranging from sheer size to newly centralized services. He thanked his fellow administrators and many outstanding staff within the college’s departments, institutes and programs for their hard work and dedication in taking on crucial leadership roles during turbulent times that have since given rise to a stable and strong organization with great promise, particularly in the research enterprise.
“Our success as a college is tied tightly to our research,” Zoran said. “Arts and Sciences researchers increased their yearly expenditures, one measure of productivity, by 43% in 2023, and we are on course to reach $200 million expensed annually. Our faculty’s roles in disciplinary inquiry and instruction are big — Texas Aggie big. It should be clear to all that an exceptional College of Arts and Sciences is critical to Texas A&M’s goal of preeminence among American universities.”
To that end, Zoran announced a yearlong strategic planning process to create a vision for Texas A&M Arts and Sciences along with five- and 10-year goals. In encouraging his audience to be active participants in this future-forward exercise, he also challenged them to continue standing up for academic freedom in times where public faith in and perception of the value of higher education, particularly in arts and humanities, is on the decline.
“Arts and Sciences faculty lead in discovery, in innovation, in the assemblage of new ideas, and they lead in the dissemination of that knowledge,” Zoran said. “I believe that we, the Aggie arts and sciences, must be the guardians of freedom — academic freedom.”
Zoran noted that Texas A&M’s Academic Building is home not only to the college but also a replica of the Liberty Bell, gifted to the university by the nation and state in honor of the Aggies who in World War II sacrificed so much in the defense of freedom. He then implored the audience to join in defending a similarly foundational right: the teaching and learning principles and practices that are fundamental to scholarship and the very manifestation of education.
“Our combined academic voice emerging from the heart of this university should echo like a liberty bell across this campus and state,” Zoran added. “We should embrace our Aggie Core Values of Excellence, Respect and Integrity and ring a welcoming note to all those seeking our mentorship and our knowledge toward the betterment of their lives, their success and survival. That is my vision for our shared heritage.”
Watch a video recording of Zoran’s address, available along with his short video introducing it during the September 24 event, on the Texas A&M Arts and Sciences YouTube channel.