Greetings,

Happy New Year! I hope that you have enjoyed the holidays, and are now enjoying the start of a new semester. The weeks between the fall and spring semesters are cold and quiet across our campuses, and I’m sure you will agree that our students’ return brings a welcome flurry of activity (and hopefully a bit of warmer weather).

Provost’s Office Update

Over the last few months, many changes have occurred in the Provost’s Office. Allow me to summarize the changes that will enable Academic Affairs to continue to improve our efficiency and effectiveness:

Senior Associate Provost
Dr. Timothy Chandler has accepted the position of senior associate provost, effective January 15. Dr. Chandler’s office is located in the Provost’s Suite of the Executive Offices, Kent Campus Library.

Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs
Ms. Sue Averill joined the Provost’s Office in December as associate provost for faculty affairs. She previously served as executive director of the AAUP-Kent State Chapter and instructor in the Department of Justice Studies. She returns to Kent State after serving three years at Cleveland State University as assistant university legal counsel.

Associate Provost for Quality Initiatives and Curriculum
Dr. Stephane Booth has assumed oversight of curriculum services, a duty held previously by Dr. Gayle Ormiston.

Special Projects
Ms. Terri Christensen has fully transitioned into her new role as assistant to the provost for special projects.

Institutional Research and Student Success
Ms. Deborah Barber has been appointed interim executive director, degree planning and student success, reporting to Dr. Sally Kandel, associate vice president for institutional research and student success. Ms. Eboni Pringle has been appointed interim director, student success, reporting to Ms. Barber.

College of the Arts
Dr. John Crawford has been appointed interim dean of the College of the Arts. A search committee is being formed to begin a national search for the position of dean.

College of Communication and Information
Professor Jeff Fruit has been appointed interim dean of the College of Communication and Information. The search committee, chaired by Dean Dan Mahony, has begun a national search to fill the position of dean.

Research and Graduate Studies
Dr. Satyendra Kumar, professor of physics, has been appointed interim associate vice president for research. Dr. Sonia Alemagno has been appointed interim associate dean for graduate studies.

Office of the University Registrar
The University Registrar, including the Transfer Center, has moved from Enrollment Management and Student Affairs to Academic Affairs.

21^st Century Graduate Project Update

The 21^st Century Graduate Project continues to move forward, as planned. The LER and Curriculum Workgroups have been meeting since the beginning of the Fall semester. Both groups are ready to report to the university community for feedback. The LER Workgroup has scheduled a series of town hall meetings:

Friday, January 23
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
KSC Room 204

Tuesday, January 27
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
KSC Room 204

Friday, January 30
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
KIVA

The final LER Workgroup meeting on the 30^th will be broadcast to all campuses. Please take the opportunity to attend one of the meetings and provide your feedback on this critical Element of Excellence. In addition to the meetings, you can visit http://lercore.kent.edu for a full report by the LER committee and an opportunity to provide your input.

The Curriculum Workgroup will announce their plans for presentations to the university in the near future.

Challenges We Face

The hiring of new faculty plays a vital role in advancing our excellence agenda. The influx of new research, scholarship and teaching methods that come with new faculty helps us execute the strategies that further Kent State’s success. Currently, Kent State’s University Policy Register limits our ability to attract mid-career faculty who have established their research and scholarship. We need these individuals with a proven record of success to jump-start our research agenda.

We can attract highly qualified potential candidates to the university by appointment at a higher rank. However, I believe our current policy limits our ability to entice these high performers because we cannot immediately award tenure if we are promoting the new faculty member to professor. Under our current policy, a faculty member promoted by appointment from a lower rank at their prior institution to professor at Kent State must still complete a probationary period before being eligible for tenure. I believe highly qualified individuals who have secured the support of faculty in their departments and college should be eligible for appointment at the rank of professor with tenure without a probationary period.

Our University Policy Register is the foundation upon which we make decisions for the good of the university. When a policy limits our potential for future success, we should consider moving beyond the way things have always been done and examine new strategies for conducting university business. The Professional Standards Committee of the Faculty Senate is currently discussing changes in the university’s appointment policy, which would play an important role in furthering our excellence agenda. In addition, we have asked the Professional Standards Committee to consider a more current description for excellence in research, teaching and scholarship.

Academic Quality

In a recent announcement, President Lefton charged the university to continue to strive toward achieving our excellence agenda. The need for our perseverance is especially great in light of our current economic challenges. Our students, our region and our state are relying upon our ability to excel – and clearly meet the higher education needs in the State of Ohio. This is not a time to wait out the storm. It is a time to pursue and engage in the creative and forward-thinking initiatives that will continue to increase the quality of a Kent State degree.

An increased ability to move quickly and nimbly to harvest critical opportunities that will support our excellence agenda is imperative:

· We must continue to move quickly and decisively on plans to expand our
efforts to retain students and keep them on the path to graduation in a timely
manner. Continued support of Student Success initiatives and the 21^st Century
Graduate Project is vital.

· We must continue to increase our research opportunities and more than
double our level of external funding.

· We must be willing to explore new ideas and practices in and out of the classroom
to meet the demands of our graduates.

· We must deliver more non-traditional programs: we must serve Northeast Ohio
and the State of Ohio. One prominent example is the proposed College of Public
Health.

· We must, even more diligently, find and refine the resources that help each and
every student succeed.

Our nation is facing a difficult and arduous year. President Lefton has sent several messages describing the complexity of the state budget and the implications of the budget for the university. The fluidity of the financial crisis and the Congressional stimulus package leave a wide range of fiscal conditions to which we will need to respond. To address these various conditions, I have asked the deans to prepare plans for moderate and severe decreases in state support. The state has already reduced our current budget $1.25 million. We know further cuts in state support are likely, but the actual amount is unclear. Our planning will help prepare our responses when Governor Strickland clarifies the budget for state universities. We will keep you informed of information we receive on the budget.

There is no doubt that we must seek innovative strategies to achieve our goals at Kent State. I look forward to working with you over the coming semester and year. Together, I believe that we can excel as a university despite the challenges we face.

With Warmest Regards,

Robert G. Frank
Provost and Senior Vice President
for Academic Affairs