Finding the mission of University of Texas Permian Basin and becoming the first dean of the College of Arts and Humanities drew Chris Morrow to campus.
Most recently, he was head of the department of English and Languages at Tarleton State University in Stephenville. He has only been at UTPB for a couple of weeks, but is familiar with the region as he spent his formative years in Fort Stockton.
Morrow said there were several things that made UTPB appealing.
“I like the mission of the university and the students that it serves,” he said.
In UTPB’s mission statement, it also mentions being a “responsive university that thinks large and lives local.”
“I love that idea of serving the region, but at the same time understanding the broader connections that we can all make. I was excited about the opportunity to help with this college that focuses on arts and humanities here,” Morrow said.
It was the College of Arts and Sciences up until this year and now UTPB is undergoing an academic transformation to promote more collaboration and cooperation between academic areas. The College of Arts and Humanities is a product of that transition.
“That’s another reason that drew me out here was the potential to help build something,” Morrow said.
Born in Odessa, Morrow grew up in Fort Stockton and lived in South Texas, Wyoming and Illinois. He and his wife, Rebecca, a criminal justice professor at Tarleton State, have two children.
Morrow earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wyoming and a master’s and doctorate in English from Texas A&M University in College Station.
“I started off as an engineering major, but like many college undergraduates, I went through the major changes to find out what I wanted to do and kind of found it that way. I originally got into English wanting to teach high school, but then as my education progressed, thought more and more about becoming a professor,” Morrow said.
Throughout his career, he’s always enjoyed teaching and students and made them his first priority.
“That’s going to shift a little bit, because right now I don’t have a teaching load as a dean here right now. I’m hoping that’ll change. I’ll probably teach down the road as I settle in (and) as the reorganization gets completed,” Morrow said.
Being a dean will give him a greater impact. In a classroom, you impact the students in the class.
“As dean, you have an opportunity to do that at a college level. You’re able to influence and make changes that provide service for the students and the faculty and the staff in order to still provide that end goal for the students. The focus on the students hasn’t changed. I just may not be working directly with them as much as I had. College is a transformative experience in many students’ lives. I was a first-generation college student, and I know that UTPB serves about 50% first-generation college students. That’s a big passion of mine is to continue to help students use college to make generational transformation, too. It doesn’t just transform their lives, but it transforms the lives of their family,” Morrow said.
His younger brother works in an underground trona mine in western Wyoming. Trona is an ore that is used in glass and baking soda, for example, he said.
His goal at UTPB for now is to develop a strategic vision for the College of Arts and Humanities. The college has 45 full-time professors covering art, English, Spanish, criminal justice, public administration, history, sociology and communication.
The university’s goal is to increase the number of graduates to meet workforce needs in the Permian Basin. It’s also attracting, retaining and supporting students to make sure they complete their degrees.
“That’s going to be one of our big goals, is to grow the college and get more graduates,” Morrow said.
“There will be some reorganization, so right now, those departments. (Right now) art and music (are) two separate departments. The plan right now is that those will combined to form visual and performing arts, but we’ll still have all the curricular programs. … The reorganization, in and of itself, doesn’t really impact the students a lot because we’re just rearranging the infrastructure,” he added.
Although this is an oil and gas focused area, Morrow said those companies still need all the things that the arts and humanities provide.
“They need good communicators. They need people that can think critically, maybe not in a highly technical aspect of their position. But the other thing, too, is that when, if we reduce college to only being about what your career is, then we’re also making art and humanities something that’s only available to the wealthy; only available to those people who don’t need to work, so it becomes a luxury, and that’s not fair, right?” Morrow said.
“It’s not fair to the people that work in oil and gas. You might not think that oil and gas and arts and humanities go together, but some of the most well read, biggest cultural and artistic supporters I know have been in resource industries. Arts and humanities is … about being human right … Stuff like criminal justice and public administration, these are great career fields for people, and they’re growing. Criminal justice is really fast growing, so it’s public administration. Those areas are already growth areas for us anyway, and so we can continue to to utilize those,” he added.
UTPB President Sandra Woodley said the university is thrilled to have Morrow as the first dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.
“His extensive experience and dedication to academic excellence will be instrumental in shaping the future of our college and enhancing the educational experience for our students,” Woodley said.
UTPB Provost and Senior VP of Academic Affairs, Dr. Dakshinamurthy said Morrow’s leadership will be invaluable.
“His commitment to providing a dynamic learning environment aligns perfectly with our university’s goals. We are confident that under his guidance, the college will thrive and make significant contributions to the academic and cultural landscape of West Texas.”
