Story by Dwain Hebda
When Dr. Meagan M. Jordan arrived in her new post as associate dean for the Clinton School of Public Service, it was a homecoming in more ways than one. Not only was this her third return to Little Rock, where she was raised to the age of 15 before the family moved to Texas, but she was joining an institution that bore her fingerprints going back to her days on faculty with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, her graduate school alma mater.
“That was an interesting process,” she said. “I worked on the committee on curriculum, a very large committee that involved people from multiple departments at multiple institutions, with the task of coming up with a curriculum (for the Clinton School). My way of looking at it at the time was we’re coming up with the initial curriculum and they’re going to change it once the faculty are there.
“I liked the changes, ultimately, but some things are still there, such as the focus on getting into the community and having an impact. That is something that uniquely represents the Clinton School, the idea of contributing to the community as a student so that you can learn how to do it and apply that upon graduation. I was also pleased that the other changes made were more skills-based and made the program more practical and rigorous.”
Helping students fill the breach between the theoretical and the practical has been a recurring theme of Jordan’s long and distinguished career in academia. At each stop during the past 25 years, she has developed new and innovative ways to improve the impact of coursework. During her time at UA Little Rock, she made significant contributions to the Master of Public Administration program and spearheaded revisions to the Capstone process for MPA students, resulting in increased graduation rates and improved student outcomes.
In her previous role as associate professor in the School of Public Service at Old Dominion University in Virginia, she successfully led a revamp of the Ph.D. program, shifting from a traditional face-to-face model to a hybrid, synchronous online format. The new approach increased applications to the program, doubled enrollment and enhanced the quality of student applicants without sacrificing academic rigor.
“Key to the Ph.D. program changes at Old Dominion University was the great challenge of making sure that the courses operated on the same standard as we would expect for a regular Ph.D. course,” Jordan said. “The way we approached it really came down to expectations and requirements and the effective use of technology and the commitment of the faculty. We believed that by focusing on quality, we’d attract the right students, the ones who want to go somewhere that the degree really means something.”
Now, as she prepares for this latest chapter in a remarkable career, Jordan is looking forward to further enhancing the reputation of the Clinton School of Public Service nationwide.
“One of the goals on my plate is to increase the reputation of the school in the academic community by making sure it is aware of the great work that we’re doing here,” she said. “The faculty is doing great research and they’re doing great community work. A big part of the effort to increase the reputation and ranking of the school is making sure that they’re out there, that they have the opportunity to present their work at conferences and in publications.
“That has a lot to do with increasing the visibility, the reputation and ranking of programs which in turn helps to attract more faculty and more students. That’s very high on my initial list of priorities.”
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