Balaji Rajagopalan, a candidate for UTRGV provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, speaks about the key opportunities that are available at UTRGV and how he would utilize his skills and leadership style during an open forum Feb. 27 in the University Ballroom on the Edinburg campus. Rajagopalan is a founding dean of the College of Business at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. ISABEL MORALES/THE RIDER
The third candidate for UTRGV provost and vice president for Academic Affairs drew a group of 33 faculty and staff members during an open forum last Tuesday on the Brownsville campus, where he spoke about the value of bringing inclusive excellence, economic development and student success.
“Opportunities that I see as UTRGV continues to strengthen the pillar of student success, but at the same time enhance the research distinction of the institution,” said candidate Balaji Rajagopalan. “Economic development continues to be an important area that UTRGV can continue to engage with the community, bring faculty, research expertise, student success, all of this to bear when put together the right way.”
Rajagopalan, who also addressed UTRGV employees on the Edinburg campus Feb. 27, has been serving as dean and professor at the College of Business at Northern Illinois University since 2016, and vice president of the Northern Illinois Research Foundation since 2022.
He previously served as director and professor at the Black School of Business in Pennsylvania State University at Erie from 2013 to 2016.
College of Engineering and Computer Science Professor Mahmoud Quweider told the candidate the biggest issue he might face would be finding a place for Brownsville under the Edinburg campus spotlight.
“Most of us are interested in what’s your vision for Brownsville in contributing
to that whole mission,” Quweider said. “We are in our eighth year of merger but it seems that nobody is able to identify the role for Brownsville versus that of Edinburg. Sometimes we’re being relegated to a community college for Edinburg. Sometimes we’re being a breeding ground where they take the best of our [Brownsville’s] resources.”
Rajagopalan did not answer the question because “it’s nearly impossible” for him “to answer the question on the specificity,” he said. However, he suggested a solution based on his previous experience regarding similarities he faced at Penn State.
“Not think integratively as UTRGV, not location specific,” he said. “I think it’s important if we believe that UTRGV is one. There is nothing that can happen at any campuses, including the largest campus at Penn State, without the smallest of the campuses engaging in a discussion.”
Rajagopalan spoke about student success in his current institution and programs that are available for students, from providing programs to form technological capabilities to engaging students in experiential learning opportunities.
“If we can create courses that are at the intersection of disciplines … if we can create courses that involve the students to go abroad as part of the course, it’s crossing the boundary so they can actually experience multiple cultures,” he said. “So these are things that we have done.”
Bilingual and Literacy Studies Associate Professor Kip Hinton asked the provost candidate if his mission approach would change because of the scale difference between the number of students in Northern Illinois University and UTRGV.
“Being true to those fundamental principles of inspiring people, being authentic, trying to get resources that are needed. I do not see changing in a significant way just because the scale,” Rajagopalan said. “I think that the impact is wider.”
