On July 1, Brian Raines began his first day as the new dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Raines double majored in English Literature and Mathematics at Hendrix College in Conway, served as a faculty member at Baylor University for more than 20 years, and eventually became an associate dean. But Raines says going to college wasn’t always on his radar.
The transcript of this conversation has been edited for clarity.
Brian Raines: I was born in Houston, Texas to a very loving, supportive, fantastic family. But we experienced extreme economic hardship when I was a kid. Food insecurity, housing insecurity, these were a part of my childhood. We moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas when I was a young teenager. And at the age of 16, I fell madly in love with this girl. And she agreed to date me, which I'm still kind of surprised by. And we began spending time together. I wanted to see her every day. I wanted to be with her all the time. And so, I started hanging out at her house when she wasn't at school and when I wasn't working.
I left school in the eighth grade and started working very low-paying jobs. But this girl that I was dating was this shining light. And so, we spent a lot of time together. I had dinner at her house many nights of the week. And I got to know her family really well, especially her father. Her father had gone to Yale and had majored in English. So, this was my connection to English. And when I was 17, he encouraged me to think about going to college. I was a voracious reader and I still am. I'm always reading several books at the same time. And I did then as well. He'd loan me his books and I tried to read them faster than he read them. And then we could talk about them. And he said, “Brian, you really should think about going to college.” But with my background, people like me — people coming from where I was coming from — we really didn't consider college an option. But this man, the smartest person I knew was encouraging me to think about it. So I did.
I ended up marrying that girl. We've been married now for about 30 years, and his mentorship and his help encouraged me to try. And he also introduced me to NPR. He was an avid listener and supporter of KUAF. So, it's really cool to me to be sitting here right now talking to you, Matthew, about him. He passed away a few years ago. But he was just an incredible, incredible man.
I went to Hendrix, like you mentioned, and spent several years there loved it. A lot of the faculty there were very helpful to me. When I showed up, I knew I wanted to major in English, just like he did, so, I majored in English. And in the middle of my first year there, I really wanted to challenge myself. So, I took calculus, loved it, took calculus 2, loved that. And my professor in calculus 2 encouraged me to start working on a research project with him. So, I had these English professors that were serving as mentors. As a low-income first-gen kid, you really need support from faculty and from all of the parts of your university or college. And my math professor was encouraging me to work on open problems and mathematics with him, so I started doing that. He really took me under his wing. And the next year I added math as a major. And then as I was finishing up my time at Hendrix, I knew that what I wanted to do was to be that kind of mentor for students like me. So I thought, okay, I need to go to grad school. And there was a moment where I maybe could have gone either way. I maybe could have gone into English literature. I could have gone into math. I tell people now I would have been a terrible literary scholar. But I'm an okay mathematician. I left Hendrix and I went to Oxford to do my PhD over in the UK. And while I was there, I had just an incredible time. Again, showing up, coming from a low-income first-generation background in Fort Smith, ending up at Oxford, I really needed again a lot of mentorship.
Matthew Moore: What is something that might surprise folks who have never thought about a world where they wouldn't go to college? What might surprise folks about what it's like to be a first-generation student?
BR: Imposter syndrome is a real thing, and I felt it from the beginning of my college career. You're thinking — at least my experience was — that every exam would tell me if I am doing the right thing or not. One major disruption is all it takes for many first-gen students to decide I'm not in the right place. I don't belong here because that's what you're already telling yourself. You're already wondering. You're already asking yourself questions, do I really belong here? And that really was amplified.
I can tell you when I went to Oxford, living in the UK was such a great experience. But it also was another cultural shift that going from low-paying jobs in Fort Smith to Hendrix and then on to Oxford, the culture changes were dramatic. So that's probably to me the biggest one is this fragility that you might have. Unless you have people standing there behind you telling you that you can do this. It's okay for that not to have worked out well. It's okay to have made a B there, a C there, whatever, not do as well as you wanted to do on that on that exam or that assignment. So having mentors, having people there to help you really make a big difference.
MM: What was it about mathematics that just kind of clicked for you?
BR: Yeah, I'm really a very verbal person. But when you get to a point in theoretical math and pure mathematics where you're working on open problems, a lot of it is you're thinking. And what's so cool, what attracted me at an early age, was the certainty of the truth in mathematics. That was so appealing to me when I was young. When you mathematically demonstrate something, it's true for all time. The work in my field that was done thousands of years ago by the Greeks or the Indian or the Chinese mathematicians, it's just as relevant and just as true today as it was then. And that's something that I found fascinating. And then the idea that this professor had when he invited me to do undergraduate research with him, the idea that I could contribute to that body of knowledge also was just really exciting.
MM: You ended up at Baylor University in Waco, Texas and ended up in some leadership roles there. What lead to this place where you decided you wanted to be more than just a professor and you wanted to take on some leadership roles?
BR: I was looking around at the institution that I was at, and I felt like there were a few things that could probably be done better for students. I got involved really working on the undergrad program for math majors, revising the major, really. I got really interested in that. I became the director of the undergrad program, and then I was asked to serve on some major committees, and do committee work across the university that would revise our core, and that was exciting work. I decided through doing that I really care about the university as a public good. My dean back at Baylor invited me into some of these discussions. It never occurred to me, because I loved working with my students and I loved working on my research. That's really what got me excited every day. But then as I got in these conversations and I realized how impactful they could be, I got pretty excited about that.
MM: Did that imposter syndrome creep back in?
BR: Absolutely. It was, it's something that — I don’t think people realize this — but I think it's hard to get away from it. Yeah, absolutely. Because even with the right training and the right credentials and the right track record to be in the role and in the conversation, you still are that little kid who kind of maybe didn't belong.
MM: What drove you to apply for this position in the first place?
BR: Yeah, that's a good question. So, I was at Baylor for 20 plus years, after being involved in big committee work that was redesigning major pieces of the undergraduate experience. I was asked to move into a formal administrative role in the Dean's office in an associate dean role. I was really surprised when I was asked to do it. A lot of faculty who transitioned from teaching and research into administration and leadership weren't expecting it. It wasn't part of my career plan at all. But when I got in the role, I kind of loved it. I loved being able to impact much more of the university and her students than just the math department. All of a sudden, I'm working with all the departments. So I loved that. I was in, I was an Associate Dean for seven years and I was getting nominated for roles outside of Baylor. It's really common for university leaders to move across the country for different opportunities.
So, I had been reached out to by dozens of other schools to apply to be a dean. And when I found out about the opening at the University of Arkansas, I got really excited. When other schools would reach out to me and I talked to my wife, we really weren't interested in moving to just anywhere. But coming back to Arkansas to have an impact on the people of the state, the students of the state, that was something that I got really excited about and so did she. We talked about it for several days and weeks. I talked to folks here about the opportunity and I heard really, really great things about Fulbright College and what they were doing. I spent quite a bit of time gathering information before I put in my application. I wasn't just looking to leave Baylor and find the next big bright thing. This was the job I wanted, so it's a job I pursued and I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky and grateful for the job. I'm really thankful to Provost Martin and Chancellor Robinson for giving me this opportunity.
MM: What scares you the most about this job?
BR: That's a great question. Fulbright College has more than 700 faculty, more than 300 staff members. One of my biggest concerns is just the knowledge. How can I quickly learn enough? How can I quickly learn all the pieces and players? We've got 19 departments and schools. We've got 30 or more centers in the college, dozens and dozens of different majors and minors and programs that have been really successful. I'm trying to accelerate my learning. And I also have thousands of alumni and friends of the college. So, the thing that's on the top of my mind right now is learning what makes Fulbright, what are our strengths, where are our biggest opportunities.
MM: What strategies do you have for drinking from the fire hydrant?
BR: I'm setting up my calendar — it’s blocked with meetings with people. I'm asking lots of questions. I'm doing a lot of listening. I'm also planning on going on a listening tour where I can engage with our alumni, I can engage with the friends of the college and hear from them what they think about Fulbright, what their vision for the future of Fulbright looks like.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The authoritative record of KUAF programming is the audio record.
