Appointments have been made to the provost search committee, a 13-member panel that will help select the University’s next vice president of academic affairs.?
The group, which will be vetting and interviewing candidates in a nationwide hiring campaign, includes representatives from across faculty and staff, as well as one member of the student body.
The lone student representative will be Ben Taylor, a third-year economics major who was elected student body president last spring.?Taylor says he was approached about finding somebody for the committee position in early September, after which he casually shopped the seat around to no avail.
“This is a big responsibility, but it’s one of those things that takes precedent over a lot of others,” said Taylor. He’s optimistic that the connections he’s been making over the past few months as student body president will help him in the new role.
“I’m serving for students,” he says. “So any students that want more information or have concerns should know that I’m the one to come talk to.”
For much of the search, committee members will have to act as one-way conduits for that concern; many details, such as names and resumes of candidates, will have to be kept confidential until the list is whittled down to a few finalists, in accordance with human resources law.
President Selma Botman initiated the search for a new provost when she took office in July, looking past former provost and then-interim president Joseph Wood. Ads for the job began appearing in academic journals at the start of the fall semester, and Botman tapped University libraries director David Nutty to chair and name the search committee.
The group’s first meeting is Monday, October 6th. According to their timeline, they hope to have finished major interviews before Thanksgiving break and to present a list of finalists to president Botman in early December.