USU adjusts administration
To ensure the productivity and effectiveness of Utah State University, President Kermit L. Hall has stirred things up a bit in the administration offices by creating six new titles and salary adjustments.
“These changes are important to the university and will allow us to bring to the academic side of the university a number of functions that should be there,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Stan Albrecht.
The first, and perhaps most significant, of these changes is the change of Albrecht’s title from just “provost.” The new title makes it even clearer the next in command is the executive vice president.
This position “allows the president to focus on some of his other responsibilities,” said former Associate Provost and Interim Provost Craig Petersen, who has recently taken the new position of chief of staff and special assistant to the president for planning and community relations.
“It allows [the president] to delegate some responsibilities,” which will help the school run more efficiently, he said.
Albrecht’s area of responsibility is now expanded beyond the educational aspects of the university to include areas like Computer Services and Student Services, Petersen said.
Petersen’s new duties will include coordinating activities between the vice president and other member of central administration and interacting with members of the community to promote both parties’ objectives.
Petersen will also direct the managing and logistics of the university’s compact planning. This will include working with the department heads and deans of each college and the provost to come to an agreement for each individual college and, ultimately, for the university, as to what resources the university needs, where they would like to see the mission and goals of the university head in the future, and what resources they will need to get where they want to go, Petersen said.
Other changes in the reorganization process include the appointment of former Chief Information Officer and Dean of Information and Learning Resources Barbara White to vice president for information technology and chief information officer. White’s main responsibility will be over the university’s computer processes, like the campus networks delivering all information on campus, technology in classrooms, the university’s multimedia purposes, etc. White will be in charge of finding devices to allow information to get to the university and then to ensure the information is here in a useful format, Petersen said.
Joyce Kinkead will be the vice provost for undergraduate affairs, putting her in charge of general education at USU, Petersen said.
As the vice provost for academic affairs and faculty personnel, Noelle Cockett will manage the promotion tenure process and faculty development at USU, Petersen said.
Linda Wolcott has been appointed to the new position of vice provost for libraries and instructional support. Wolcott’s responsibilities will primarily lie in ensuring the libraries at USU are getting the funding necessary and receiving the books and information adequate to maintain a university-caliber facility.
These new appointments will increase the responsibility of the officers but will be “more efficient. President Hall has a lot of changes he wants to make,” Petersen said. “[These new positions] will make it easier to facilitate his decisions.”