Leadership profile produced for ongoing provost search
Open forums will be held at end of the semester
A leadership profile has been produced for the new Central Michigan University provost and executive vice president.
The profile states, “the university seeks an innovative academic leader with the experiences and management qualities to build on the institution’s reputation and take it to even higher levels of academic excellence and student success.”
As the principal officer for all of the university’s undergraduate and graduate education activities, the provost is responsible for university accreditation, promotes student success and excellence in teaching, coordinates and manages budget development for various colleges and advises the president on the university’s academic functions.
The next provost will need to contribute to the “Achieving Excellence: CMU’s Strategic Plan 2017-2022” that is centered around the key institutional values.
The provost must obtain a doctorate from an accredited institution, hold a record of distinguished research and teaching, be a tenurable full professor, be committed to diversity and inclusion and possess exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
Ideal provost candidates must have inclusive and decisive higher education leadership experience, executive level budgeting experience and be a highly motivated team player who can effectively function in a fast-paced environment, the profile states.
“The candidate needs to be analytic and collaborative because the university is made of multiple moving parts and usually stops on the provost’s desk,” said search committee co-chair Richard Rothaus, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
A 16-member search committee, appointed by President Robert Davies, is working alongside search firm Witt/Kieffer to find the next CMU provost.
Open forums were held Jan. 14 to gather desired attributes for a provost from the campus community.
“As the search committee, the president has charged us to find a cluster of candidates, three or four or five or six, that we think can do the job well and recommend that group to him and he’ll make the final choice,” Rothaus said.
Rothaus said the plan is to have final candidates on campus before the end of the semester for tours and an open forum.
The committee hopes to have a new provost by July 1.
