Lowell Davis

Every Higher Education (HE) institution is unique, with its own set of circumstances and challenges that demand tailored solutions. At the University of Texas Arlington (UTA), a large and diverse campus with a significant number of commuter students, fostering a sense of belonging and engagement requires equally diverse approaches. 

UTA’s Vice President (VP) for Student Affairs, Lowell K. Davis, took the time to speak with Co-Host of The Interview, Jack Eagle, about cultivating a sense of belonging among such a widespread student body, and the strategies his team pioneers to support commuter students academically, socially, and mentally.  

Lowell’s Journey

Jack: Let’s start with a brief introduction to yourself and your institution…

I’m Lowell Davis, and I serve as VP for Student Affairs at UTA. We’re proud to be one of the most diverse HE institutions in the nation, serving 44,000 students, including 35,000 commuter students who live in the surrounding areas. Arlington is the largest metropolitan city without public transportation, so we’re in a very unique situation. Even so, we expect our footprint to grow with our planned expansion into Parker County in the fall of 2028, when we’ll enroll an estimated 1,000 new students with a goal of 10,000 students.

Jack: How have you found the transition to your role at UTA? 

Starting a new job is always an interesting time, with people trying to figure you out just as much as you’re trying to figure them out. To add to that, UTA has an enrollment exceeding 40,000, and we serve a lot of first-generation, Pell-eligible students. We bring in millions of dollars in research and award a significant number of PhDs, but we don’t have some of the resources other institutions of our size offer, such as a football team. We do not have any professional schools. As a VP, this means I have to encourage administrators to interact and engage with our students in very distinct ways. Fortunately, in my first 18 months, I’ve been able to hire people who are committed to that vision, and I’m really enjoying it so far. 

Jack: With such a large student body, how do you create a sense of belonging on campus?

When I interviewed for this position, creating unity on campus was one of the main aims that the president and provost shared with me. The challenge is that of the 44,000 students who come to us for education, very few live in our residence halls or have the free time necessary to connect with each other. From a programmatic standpoint, our Brazos lawn is the heart of our campus, so we’ve tried to make that a place where students can hang out and create community. We held a concert there during homecoming, and we also organize line-dancing sessions, mariachi band performances, and spoken word open mics in that space throughout the year to bring current students and alums together. Those events are promoted through our digital platform, Engage, which sends out reminders about when and where students can connect and grab some free food. However, because we have 7,000 international students, we must think differently about our programming, and how we can offer all of our students exactly what they need to be an active part of our community. 

Jack: What initiatives have you launched to support students’ mental wellbeing?

We’re focused on ensuring students have easy access to support, and we do that through visibility and volume of touchpoints both in person and online. For students who live off campus, we have a mental health platform that the University of Texas system purchased for us, known as Timely Care, which is available 24/7 and allows students to receive support in their native language. That level of comfort brings down a lot of barriers, especially for those who are already dealing with so much. For our on-campus students, we have mental health professionals in all of our residence halls, meaning they can schedule appointments, walk down in their pajamas to get the help they need, then walk right back to their room. We also have counselors in various locations across campus, primarily in our physical counseling center but also in our Maverick Activities Center. This multi-pronged approach means we can meet students where they are, and provide them with convenient and tailored access to the support they need. 

Jack: What innovative technology does UTA employ to assist and engage students?

I want us to get to a point as Student Affairs administrators where we can understand, as far as level of engagement, how our students are behaving. We know when students go to the activities center, we know when they go to the dining hall, and we know when they swipe their card at residence halls or events. The challenge is correlating that information to understand levels of engagement, and working out what we should do for students who aren’t engaging with our initiatives. Our MavEngage platform has been a great resource to that end, and though some people may say apps aren’t a recent technological innovation, it’s definitely a new resource for us at UTA. We use it to track student behavior, find students who aren’t involved in the honors college or organizations, and reach out via notifications with events that are in their neighborhood that week. Since we have so many commuter students, we go out to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, The Colony, Colleyville, and other locations to hold transition events. It’s a unique approach to our unique situation, and it enables us to support students’ physical and mental needs. 

Jack: What’s the best advice you’ve received during your career?

It’s a line from a Kenny Rogers’ song, The Gambler, and it goes, ‘Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.’ Though it can be challenging, I think that lyric sums up how we often have to behave as HE leaders when interacting with our colleagues and students. Sometimes we need to keep our cards close, but we also need to recognize when we’ve given all we can and should walk, or run, away.