The University of Central Florida provost search committee held its first open forum in its pursuit to fill President Dale Whittaker’s previous position.
Larry Singell is the first of four candidates running to fill the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs role to hold an open forum. Around 50 faculty members from various colleges at UCF lined up to ask Singell about his credentials and vision. Here are four things you need to know about Singell:
Stance on student’s : “UCF has students that are more representative of the population as a whole than other institutions I have observed in the rest of the country. This campus represents America in a much truer way than most of the campuses that I have seen, and so this is a grand experiment about can we make this work and work well and that’s the part that makes me excited about the [provost position]”
Stance on faculty: “If there’s an opportunity for me to enroll more students and give more student credit hours I’d do it. I have an individual, he has to talk to me on a regular basis, but his instructions are that if it’s profitable do it. That can happen because there’s a direct link between the money and the delivery of instruction. To the extent it’s possible, you know a provost that can look at what’s profitable for the institution as a whole and make resources available is something that would be collectively wise. I would look towards mechanisms that more closely align instructional demand with resources.”
Stance on Education: “One of my goals when I became executive dean at the college of arts and sciences [at Indiana University] was to create a career services department in which students participated in career services from day one. Career is really about what am I good at, what am I passionate about, what am I interested in given those skill sets and how does that translate into your next step. I really do believe that conversation has to start immediately. One of the problems of the college of arts and sciences is your experience about discovering [career path] after you get out is one that is not uncommon. It’s not about the first job it’s about a career and a career requires general skills.”
Stance on His role as provost: “Economists believe that decisions closest to where the action is, is the appropriate place to happen. The provost role is to find the resources that strategically encourage units that may not work together to work together, but again a provost budget is somewhat limited so it has to look in strategic places where those investments will make a difference. I believe that if we do this together collectively we are going to be more successful and you, the individual, will be more successful. It’s not always about the money, but money matters.”
The UCF provost search committee will be hosting its next open forum on Sept. 10th from 3:45 – 5pm at Morgridge International Reading Center for candidate number two, Stefanie Lindquist.
