Search for New Provost Begins with Bill Scoones Serving in Interim

The new academic year will open with an interim provost and vice president for academic affairs in place and the search for a successor to Jim Malek under way. In May Malek announced that he was leaving after three years as provost to take a comparable position at Rollins College.

The search committee convened August 8. With the help of Ted Lewis, a senior consultant at Academic Search Consultation Service in Washington, D.C., the committee looks to have a new provost named by the end of the fall semester.

Meanwhile, that senior position will be filled by longtime faculty member and administrator Bill Scoones. During his 31-year tenure at the College, Scoones served on the faculty of the former Department of Education and held more than a dozen administrative posts, including dean of the School of Allied Health Professions and director of the Center for Teacher Education. At the time of his retirement last December he was special assistant to the provost.

"I’ve had four tours of duty in this office," Scoones says. "I have a special fondness for this post."

He also has some very definite ideas of the goals he hopes to accomplish.

"During my interim tenure here, I want the College community to be thinking about three things," he says. "First, we need to keep our curriculum current to reflect what’s going on in the world. We need to pay constant attention to bridging the gap between professional studies and the liberal arts.

"Second, we need to create a more active academic funding program and fund-raising profile.

"And third, we need to find the resources to adjust faculty teaching loads. We’re not a research university and we certainly don’t aspire to be one, but giving faculty more opportunities for research and scholarship will only enhance their teaching, not diminish it."

President Peggy R. Williams expanded on those thoughts, citing her ideas on the qualities of the next provost.

"We are looking for an individual who identifies closely and enthusiastically with our mission as a residential, undergraduate college dedicated to teaching excellence," Williams says. "We want someone with extensive academic experience and broad knowledge of practices and developments nationwide who can provide leadership to all dimensions of academic affairs."

The search committee will meet regularly through the fall semester and plans to recommend a candidate to the president by mid-December.

Kim Dunnick, professor of music, is chairing the search committee. Members are:

• Mary DePalma, associate professor of psychology;
• Martha Gray, director of the Office of Institutional Research;
• Sandra Herndon, professor of organizational communication, learning, and design, and chair of the graduate program in communications;
• Betsy Keller, associate professor of exercise and sport sciences;
• Don Lifton, associate professor of business administration;
• Roger Richardson, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs;
• Shelley Semmler, vice president for institutional advancement; and
• Murillo Soranso ’02, a computer science major in the School of Humanities and Sciences.