Research
JSU's Mason atop growing research power
...It’s hard to believe from the numbers - $35.9 million in FY 2005. But Jackson State University
is a relative newcomer to the research arena with just a six-year track record.
...And JSU is getting noticed. The third annual ranking of universities by Washington Monthly
has JSU 37th based on what it returns to the community. A part of that assessment is based on
the research it does.
...President Ronald Mason said research is important because it furthers knowledge, addresses
the needs of a community, attracts talent and resources and can be an economic driver.
...“If you look for an investment that was wise and led to the health and well-being of the
community, then investing in the research enterprise makes a great deal of sense, which is what I’
ve been telling the legislature for several years,” said Mason.
...JSU in downtown Jackson is the fourth largest research university in the state in R&D
expenditures. Like the other three research universities, it has a Carnegie classification of RU/H
(research university/high research). It is involved in South Mississippi through its work with
Northrop Grumman, Stennis Space Center and the Gulf Coast Research Lab.
...“Like anything that is successful quickly, it’s a combination of some good planning, some luck,
some timing,” said Mason, who finds himself a player on a field he’s not certain the university
should have entered: research.
Making the transition
...“Research is an expensive and difficult game to play. If somebody had asked me six years ago
whether Jackson State should get into that arena – given the resources we had to work with – I’
m not sure I would have. But we’re in it now, and we can’t get out of it because, among other
things, it fuels our Ph.D programs,” said Mason.
...JSU is a growing producer of African-American PhDs “and soon to be No. 1 producer. So it’s
a track we’re on and we have to figure out how to fuel it,” said Mason, who sees salaries as one
of the hurdles to overcome.
...“We’re making the transition from a teaching institution to a bonafide research institution, but
research faculty makes a lot more money. And we only have one externally funded endowed
chair, and we just got that this year,” said Mason.
...“And without endowed chairs to attract the kind of faculty you need to pull in the kind of
research interests that you need, it’s very difficult. So we’re going to be going through a
restructuring exercise over this next year that will help, I think, position us better to fuel the
research machine.”
...Mason understands there will be some resistance to change. Universities historically move
slowly, and he’s locked horns with the faculty on occasion over the changes he’s made. It’s the
old that’s-not-how-we-do-things refrain.
...“It’s a heck of a challenge, but you know, we’ve kind of been getting ready for it the last few
years. I’ve been here eight years and I think in the first four years I reorganized the top level five
times,” he said.
...His idea is to “change it up” from time to time to see what works, what doesn’t.
...“We don’t have a choice,” said Mason about experimenting with different approaches. “This is
all necessity driven. We have more university than we have money or people to operate. And
that’s just a fact.”
The changing landscape
...He expects research dollars to go up, driven by the new College of Engineering and School of
Public Health. But how much he’s not willing to say, in part because of all the variables. His
main goal is to make JSU flexible to the changing landscape.
...“We need to see the future of higher education and have Jackson State sitting there waiting for
it. We’re going to have to really understand what the world is and what it needs 10, 15, 20 years
from now and become the kind of institution that satisfies those needs. But we’ve got to see it
before everybody else because the dollars are driving us to be innovative in how we deliver what
we deliver and do what we do,” he said. – Tcp
October 2007