Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Ex-UNLV president leads Texas university to Tier-1 status

Heart of Dallas Bowl - News Conference

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

North Texas fans hold up a sign referring to UNLV president Neal Smatresk leaving for the same position at North Texas during the Heart of Dallas Bowl Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. North Texas won 36-14.

UNLV is still not on the coveted list of top research institutions commonly known as Tier-1 by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

But guess which university is? The University of North Texas, where former UNLV President Neal Smatresk took over as president after leaving Las Vegas in 2013.

According to the latest Carnegie rankings, released this week, North Texas joined 114 other public and private universities on Carnegie's list of Tier-1 research schools.

Tier-1 research institution status is highly sought after by university leaders around the country due to the prestige it brings. The ranks of Tier-1 colleges around the country include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton and Yale. UNLV falls into the Carnegie research category one step below Tier-1.

The requirements for achieving the designation have not been released to the public, but officials behind the Carnegie rankings have said it is a combination of statistics such as the number of doctoral degrees conferred and total research spending.

Under Smatresk's leadership, UNLV set a goal of becoming Tier-1 in less than 15 years. He ended up leaving the university for Texas a few months after making the announcement in September 2013. He said at the time that the decision was motivated by his desire to be closer to his family.

Smatresk had been the president at UNLV for four years. When he arrived at North Texas, he made pursuing Tier-1 status one of his key goals.

Since his departure, UNLV leaders have largely stuck to Smatresk's vision of boosting research output. When current President Len Jessup took over at the beginning of 2015, he retained a focus on research but broadened UNLV's efforts to try to become a "top tier" university that also puts an emphasis on student services and undergraduate achievement.

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