Known for her role as the Dean of Education and Human Services, Paula Lancaster was officially named Interim Provost during the Academic Senate meeting on Sept. 10. This comes after the sudden resignation of Nancy Matthews, the now-former executive vice president and provost of Central Michigan University.

“At this time, the best way I can help the CMU community is to continue the great work this college is doing,” Lancaster said. “My background is education, I’m very student-focused. … I want to understand and learn students' barriers.”

Lancaster has been working in higher education since 1999 and started her role as dean in 2020.

President Bob Davies said he “has always been impressed” with Lancaster’s performance at CMU. During his report with Lancaster, he addressed Matthews’s resignation and thanked Lancaster for swiftly accepting the interim position.

“I am extremely grateful that Dr. Paula Lancaster accepted my invitation to serve as our Interim Provost,” Davies said. “I know that sudden change is very disruptive, especially when we have so many initiatives and goals underway…”

Faculty and senate members said that they were shocked by the sudden change but aren't nervous about Lancaster taking on the role.

“I’m absolutely thrilled,” Senate member and Associate Dean of The Herbert H. & Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions Gregory Zimmerman said. “I worked with Paula (Lancaster) as dean, and she was outstanding. … It’s a big lift to step into that role.”

Biology Professor and Academic Senate chair Steve Juris said he has enjoyed working with both Matthews and Lancaster, and that the change is “bittersweet.”

“It took me by surprise,” Juris said. “I had the opportunity to work with Provost Mathews last semester as I was coming into this new role.”

When asked who will be filling the role of Dean of Education and Human Services, Davies said that “there’s always a domino effect with leadership changes” and that the college will be immediately looking for an interim dean.

CMU will undergo the HLC re-affirmation process for the next two years

Also during the meeting, Juris asked Vice Provost Dave Patton and Basic Course Director Kristen Weber to present the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) re-affirmation process that CMU will be undertake through 2026.

HLC is an accrediting organization that evaluates colleges and universities throughout the United States. Its mission is to "advance the common good through quality assurance of higher education" according to its website.

During the process, faculty are asked to volunteer to help make sure every department is represented.

“It’s important that we have representation across the university, across all divisions, and at all levels of representation,” Weber said. “We want to make sure we have faculty and staff involved (and) from administration and staff as well.”

This year, the college will be gathering and sending reports to HLC. A team of accreditors will visit campus next year to interview and inspect CMU.

Lancaster acknowledges list of over 50 grants, totaling nearly $5 million

During her first report as interim provost, Lancaster talked about a list of 61 grants that CMU acquired since April.

"We have recently been reading off and acknowledging a significant number of extensive funding awards that we have been coming into the university," Lancaster said. "We have quite a list today ... it's a total sum of 61 awards of $4,843,760."

Future Academic Senate meetings will occur at 3:30 p.m. every other Tuesday at the Education and Human Services building in the French Auditorium. Livestreams of this meeting and all future meetings can be found on CMU’s website.

CM Life Editor-in-Chief Lauren Rice contributed to this story.