Provost Addresses USAC and Highlights Key Initiatives
USAC had the honor of hosting Provost Susan Wente during its first meeting of 2018. “There are many aspects that make up the work that takes place in the Provost area,” said Wente who introduced the office as an entity that works with faculty and students in every aspect of their day-to-day life — from instructional and learning services to admissions and enrollment to the residential experience to research to faculty hiring, mentoring and promoting.
The Provost oversees the Deans of the ten Vanderbilt schools and colleges in addition to several Vice and Associate Provosts that provide central support in areas such as inclusion, strategic partnerships and financial aid. The Office of the Provost also has a close, and critical, connection to the Division of Finance. All of these people are “united in one critical strategy, which is to support the overall academic mission,” said Wente. The core principals of that mission include:
- Recruiting the very best students, faculty and staff
- Offering an unparalleled learning and living environment for everyone who is here
- Undertaking world-class research to advance discovery and learning
Wente went on to highlight some of her office’s key initiatives:
Through this initiative, every undergraduate student will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a project which will promote interactions with faculty members outside of the classroom. Each project will be designed and structured by the student but will fall into one of the following broad categories:
- International
- Research
- Creative expression
- Civic/professional
As graduate education becomes increasingly more difficult to finance, the Chancellor has made a commitment to build a $300 million endowment for graduate education over the next several years. This endowment will help support scholarships and graduate student housing among other priorities.
This working group includes faculty and staff members from across the University and is tasked with examining Vanderbilt’s global connections and how they can be leveraged. This group also looks specifically at global partnerships and how people representing education, government and industry in other countries can be brought to campus.
Wente pointed out that data has an impact on many facets of society such as health care, sustainability and education. As such, it requires “infrastructure and forethought.” Two working groups are looking into research and education applications.
The Chancellor is looking into ways to implement recommendations made by a Humanities Committee which was appointed during the 2016/17 academic year. These include an investment for the library collections as well as recommendations that intersect with the visiting scholars program and the big data initiative.
Wente concluded by talking briefly about the recent appointment of Melissa Thomas-Hunt, Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence, and various building projects around campus.
A video of the presentation can be found via the USAC website and more information about the Office of the Provost can be found here.
Article photo by Carlos Ruiz
Featured photo by Daniel Dubois
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