New A-State chancellor reveals future changes

Jonesboro, Arkansas – Arkansas State University begins the Todd Shields era this year, and the new chancellor wants to improve the school as much as he can. I am just really excited to be here, and I know we are going to do some great things here at Arkansas State,” said Shields.

Since 2014, he was the dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

One of Shields’ main goals is improving campus life. He feels that post-pandemic a lot of students are excited to be out and about again, and they need to capitalize on that. “We are really seeing people come back out to events and I think we are going to see a lot more students come out to football games, basketball games, baseball in the spring,” he said.

Shields stressed in a lot of cases, the key to keeping students active is communication. “So, however they are talking, we are going to talk with them that way, too, so they know there are a lot of things they can go do,” he said.

For example, for the rest of the week, the school is offering a silent disco on Tuesday night, a community fair on Wednesday, and a block party on Thursday. Communication is also a staple of Shield’s recruiting pitch to incoming students. He knows have schools been struggling to find new students and he wants to make sure A-State does not have that problem. “We have to have a different approach to branding and a different approach to recruiting,” he said. “Making sure we are recruiting the right students that we think will benefit from what Arkansas State has to offer.”

According to Shields, going into the New Year, he is most excited for the first football game, and for the students to have a great first week.