Issue date: 11/11/09 Section: News

Robert Augustine was announced one of four finalists for the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs search at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Augustine, dean of the graduate school, research, international students and scholars and study abroad, will interview on UW-Whitewater's campus today.

Augustine was unavailable for comment.

Search committee chair John Stone, dean of Graduate Studies and Continuing Education at UW-Whitewater, confirmed Augustine a finalist.

"The committee was impressed, at some level, at the depth of (Augustine's) professional experience," Stone said, speaking on behalf of the entire committee.

He said portions of Augustine's current duties as dean of Eastern's graduate school lie under what the UW-Whitewater provost does.

During the preliminary phone interview, Stone said the committee was impressed with Augustine's responses to questions.

The search for provost was launched July of this year, Stone said.

The committee has already interviewed two of the four finalists on UW-Whitewater's campus. The other two, including Augustine, will interview this week.

Stone said the on-campus interviews involve each candidate meeting with constituencies, constituting various units within the university that the provost would be involved with, such as the deans of the four academic colleges and academic affairs staff.

Candidates will also have lunch with a small group of students and have an open campus meeting where each candidate can field questions from campus and community members.
Candidates interview with the chancellor, as the provost is the second in command, directly under the chancellor.

Following each of these interviews, the committee will allow a couple days for feedback and evaluation forms to come back in.

"Sometime next week, the committee will sit down as a group and look at the feedback," Stone said.

The committee will then put together summaries for each candidate to share with the chancellor.

The chancellor then makes the final decision.

"His message to me was that he wants to get this done as soon as possible," Stone said.

Stone said the university had hoped to have the position filled, with finalists starting by Jan. 1, 2010.

He said this is probably unrealistic.

"Each of these four finalists have significant professional duties," Stone said.

Since these duties will prohibit most of the candidates from filling the position right away, it is Stone's hope to get the position filled as quickly as possible.

The other finalists are Martin Tadlock of University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Alan Hartman of UW-Oshkosh and Beverly Kopper of University of Northern Iowa.

The provost search committee reviewed 56 applications, screened references on 13 preliminary finalists and interviewed seven semifinalists by phone before selecting the four finalists.

The position description on UW-Whitewater's Web site describes the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs as "the chief academic officer of the university and reports directly to the chancellor."

Some of the provost's duties include planning, developing, coordinating and evaluating academic programs in ways that assure academic quality; overseeing appointment, review and professional development of unclassified staff; and ensuring and enhancing the quality of undergraduate and graduate education.

For a full description go to http://www.uww.edu/provostsearch/index.html.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or
DENcampusdesk@gmail.com

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