Increasing Data Availability and Access to Technology - March 31, 2026

Dear Faculty, Staff and Graduate Assistants,

With the end of the semester in sight, I want to take a moment to thank you for your continued support of our students and the university. Since becoming Provost, I’ve been impressed with the collaboration between units to advance student, faculty and staff success.  I am especially proud of the progress we’ve made in expanding access to data and improving technology across campus.

Improving Access to Data

Last semester, I heard about the challenges you face regarding accessing the information needed to support students and manage courses. To help streamline data across the university, we created the Department of Strategic Data and Process Innovation last fall. Led by Dr. Jannette Akridge, this department united our campus data experts from Finance and Administration, the Provost’s Office and IT Services under one umbrella in an effort to enhance data accessibility, transparency and understanding across the university.

Her team has already made important improvements in how we manage and share data, in the creation of a robust data lake to replace our former data warehouse, and work is underway to develop more comprehensive dashboards and create predictive analytic tools.  We still have work to do in this area, and we are not where we need to be.  However, I believe we are moving in the right direction under Dr. Akridge’s leadership in transforming how we can make data accessible to our campus community and an integral part of our decision-making processes on campus.

Offering Free Artificial Intelligence Tools and Expanding Support

We also expanded AI tools and resources available for campus, which was led by Dr. Chase Rainwater, the inaugural Provost Fellow for AI, as well as AI Working Groups representing units across campus. Last September, we launched ai.uark.edu to provide guidance on acceptable AI use and provided access to free university-approved tools, including Copilot Chat, Google Gemini and Google NotebookLM. Copilot for Microsoft 365 and OpenAI ChatGPT Edu are also available for purchase with university funds for faculty, staff and GAs to support their work.

In partnership with leadership from Human Resources (HR) and IT Services, we’ve offered our first in-person and extensive Microsoft Copilot training and have created a Community of Practice to serve as a platform for AI questions and shared learnings for campus. An effort is also underway to introduce the appropriate and ethical use of AI to students in first-year courses next fall.

Implementing Workday Student

The launch of Workday Student last fall was a major accomplishment for both our institution and the UA System. This multi-year project converted more than 24 million data elements, configured 1,200+ programs of study, and integrated over 70 systems. This was a heavy lift and was not easy.  Our implementation team, led by Senior Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Services Dave Dawson, as well as the frontline faculty and staff in every academic unit deserve special praise for their efforts with this implementation.

As a result of their hard work, Workday now houses HR, Finance and student data in one system, and it gives advisors and administrators access to hundreds of custom reports.  In addition, transferring between campuses will become easier, faster and more efficient with the entire UA System on the same platform. We will continue to refine Workday Student to make it easier to use in the coming year as we have done with the HR and Finance components of Workday.

Continuing the Conversation

I’ve enjoyed engaging with you over the past several months, and I hope to continue the conversation to learn more about how you’ve advanced the university and how we can continue to improve.  The town halls last semester gave me incredible insight into how my office can support you and our institution as a whole. I also enjoyed meeting with faculty recently, along with Chancellor Robinson, at coffee events in February and March.  We heard about our faculty’s many accomplishments, and we were also able to address several concerns.  We plan to host more events to further our discussions on how we can work together to reach our 150 Forward Reaching Higher goals.

Thank you again for your contributions over the past year and your collaboration.  We have much to be proud of in the advancements we’ve made in the fall and this semester. I look forward to learning more about the great work you’ve done, and I hope to connect more with you in the coming months.

Best Regards,

Indrajeet Chaubey, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Distinguished Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering