After today's public forum for Ball State University's third and final provost candidate, members of the Ball State community will discuss who they think would best fill the administrative opening."The search committee will meet as soon after his visit as possible and share our impressions," O'Neal Smitherman, provost search committee chairperson, said. "We're sharing information with the president regarding our impressions of the candidates and what we know about them."The last candidate being considered for the position, Andrew Bodman, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Western Washington University, will participate in an open forum today at 9:30 a.m. in Bracken Library, room 225.When he first learned about the position, Bodman said he knew little about the Ball State."As I looked at the university, I thought that it had considerable potential," Bodman said. "There were some interesting things going on here."Ball State is working on a strategic plan, which Bodman has been working on at WWU, as well as general education revisions, which Bodman said were just completed at WWU."A lot of the groundwork has already been done," Bodman said of Ball State's core curriculum revisions. "There's at least the outline of the proposals for general education revision, and I think it's both interesting and fairly innovative."As provost at Ball State, Bodman said he would work closely with the vice president of marketing and enrollment management to see what the problems are in student enrollment.WWU claims a retention rate of 83 percent compared to Ball State's 80 percent, Bodman said. The retention rate at WWU has gone up four percent while he has been provost.Bodman has gained experience as a provost at WWU for six years."This candidate is currently in a provost position and that he has good experience, and all of the evidence that [the committee] has gotten on the reference checks has been positive," Smitherman said.The Ball State chapter of American Association of University Professors did some background research on Bodman as well and spoke with faculty members at WWU."The first year he was in his position in Washington he created stir by going around the governance system and trying to make some changes, but he seems to have toned down a bit when the faculty resisted," Baker said.WWU faculty members who Baker talked to told him that Bodman had some problems with conflicts and would sometimes get angry and treat people with less respect.WWU is two-thirds the size of Ball State and has less than 12,000 students. He said coming from a university with a more narrow focus will create an interesting challenge."There are things which provosts have to do at any institution and will do at any institution," Bodman said. "So I think the experience is very useful there. There won't be any surprises, and there won't be much of a transition period."His first goal would be to find out more about the university, Bodman said."I'd want to start by talking to students who are actively engaged in the university community," Bodman said. "They are the ones who typically have the best view of the university. Then I'd sort of want to try and fan out from there and talk to focus groups of students or maybe student organizations or clubs to get a sense of a pulse of this place from the students' perspective."He also would visit every academic department in his first year here if he were appointed, he said. That way he could obtain the views of the faculty and staff as well."Accumulate as much information as possible as quickly as you can about the university, how it operates, what faculty life is like, what student life is like," Bodman said. "That's a database you can't access without being here. Then you sort of have to sift through and work out what's urban myth and what's reality."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
