Campus community members say they would like the University of Michigan’s next provost to possess a broad intellectual curiosity, strong commitment to the student experience and dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion.
That assessment came at a town hall hosted Monday by President Mark Schlissel and the search advisory committee he’s chairing. It was designed to help the committee know what the campus community is looking for in U-M’s next chief academic and budget officer.
The town hall also gave the approximately two dozen students, faculty and staff members in attendance an opportunity to hear from search committee members about what they will prioritize and value as they identify and interview candidates.
The new provost will replace Martha E. Pollack, who left the university Jan. 31 to become president of Cornell University.
Schlissel has said his goal is to have a new provost in place by the start of the new academic year in the fall. Paul N. Courant, the Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau professor, and professor of public policy, economics and information, is serving as interim provost.
Schlissel said that unlike other search processes during his time at U-M, he decided to chair the provost’s search because of the position’s significant importance. He also wanted to signal the importance of the position to the community.
“Although we don’t officially have this in our bylaws, if I got hit by a truck, I want a provost who can step in and lead the institution confidently while we figure out what to do next,” he said.
“The relationship between me and the provost is an extremely important one. I don’t want someone that agrees with me all the time, to be certain, but I want somebody who is comfortable engaging and interacting. I want to be sure there is a good intellectual fit, complementary.”
Among the attendees offering feedback, James Holloway, vice provost for global engagement and interdisciplinary academic affairs, said the provost has to have a perspective on U-M’s wide variety of disciplines and academic activities.
“No one provost is ever expert in all those areas, but that broad intellectual curiosity across all those areas, I think, is critical for a provost here because the provost has to support all those activities and recognize the excellence in all of them,” said Holloway, also an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences.
Central Student Government President David Schafer noted the importance of having a provost who understands, and is willing to talk to students about, the more subtle costs of college, such as textbooks. He said it’s also important that the provost is committed to the student experience and will take steps in service of that mission, such as allocating more resources for mental health services.
Town hall attendees had questions for the search committee as well, with their inquiries centered on what the members were looking for in the next provost and how they envisioned the relationship between the provost and students going forward.
Among their answers, committee members said they wanted U-M’s next provost to have research experience as well as an understanding of the complexity of the research enterprise; the highest academic standards; and a willingness to allow U-M to experiment.
Members also said they wanted the next provost to value diversity, equity and inclusion, be a critical thinker and critical listener, and constantly think about how his or her decisions impact students.
Search advisory committee member Melody Racine said she thinks of the student population as the “heartbeat of the university” while the provost is the beat’s caretaker.
“They’re charged to be the person that monitors that heartbeat, to ensure that it’s healthy and robust,” said Racine, senior associate dean for academic, faculty and student affairs at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and clinical associate professor of music.
Earlier Monday, Schlissel and members of the search advisory committee met with the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs to gather the central faculty governance group’s input on the search.
SACUA member John Lehman, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, provided a list of questions for candidates drafted by the Academic Affairs Advisory Committee. They included such topics as the purpose of a university like U-M and why should students aspire to be educated here, the highest achievement of their administrative career, and their vision for research and innovation.
Other SACUA members indicated it was important to know from candidates the specific examples from their careers that demonstrate their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and that it would be useful to have a provost with experience dealing with government.
