A union member listening to a Listening Session.

The friendly rep from Storbeck Search bellowed out self-praise for their successful vacancy searches over the previous years until our tech guy turned down the volume to some number far more manageable (visions of Spinal Tap boasting about 11…). To one listening, the overbearing volume of the rep on the screen in the Grand Reading Room of the Library echoed the overburdening volume of turnovers in the Foster Building over the last decade – I am on my seventh Chancellor and my sixth Provost in ten years. My silent chuckle, fueled by the number of exoduses from the Foster Building, acknowledged why Storbeck Search gets so much of our business and likes us so much…

For this listening session, we concentrated on three questions:

1. What is working well now in relation to this role?

2. What would you like to see change in relation to this role in the future? What’s on the do-do list for the next provost?

3. What are the qualities, qualifications, and experience will it be important for the new person to have?

You can email the rep, and below is the company’s page in case you’re interested in who is running this search: m.marsello@storbecksearch.com

Storbeck Search

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Some of the responses in no particular order (based on sporadic note taking):

Gave a shout out to Ram Bal for actually sitting down with nonTT faculty and hearing concerns at the OFD – (Ram Bal is now on his second interim gig as Provost). Need to foster that type of discourse.

Find a way to gauge if the candidates have any “staying power” somehow – there seems to be a near-constant feeling of abandonment. Where is our leadership?

Find a candidate who is more proactive rather than reactive – ex. CVPA Star Store closure – looked more reactive than having any type of plan.

We need to find someone that has experience with our incoming students skill sets (or lack thereof). Needs to have a relationship with retention at this institute, and also understand the hazards that we face with different student/faculty/staff demographics.

It was said that ‘many universities like to grow their way out of their financial crises,’ not clear from previous provost that there was an alternative plan to this, or any plan. So, the future Provost needs to guide us through a seismic shift in student demographics in order to truly become a national level university or in recruiting students – i.e. “all faculty need to see their place in that plan.”

The turnover puts into peril our ability to abide by the mission of Higher Education (also imperils our feeling of job security).

Lack of any consistency or effective communication about the outcomes of strategic plans. How are we advancing our institution?

Needs effective communication skills.

Needs to support cross-collaboration across colleges – equitable reasoning, written communication skills, programs that build additional skills…

Needs to tackle the state of the university itself – quality repairs (deferred maintenance).

Needs experience in researching/teaching or at least respect for the Humanities.

Change in how they fund departments – their reasoning, “there’s no demand so why should we hire?” But a university is a university so we need to fund all. Provost needs to gauge how the US economy is changing – “clear understand of the big picture, not the small pictures.”

Research support, we have seen improvements, but need innovation. Should work with the OFD and impress upon the community the importance of teaching excellence and innovation. Top down support – lead and shape that narrative – advocate for resources; cannot have excellence without innovation.

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Also, the bag lunches were nice.