Ball State University's trio of provost forums ended Wednesday with a candidate who was not afraid to discuss his insights and shortcomings.
Andrew Bodman, provost of academic affairs at Western Washington University, said his six years of experience at WWU has equipped him with skills to address issues such as faculty salaries, general education revision and strategic planning.
"We've got to conceive of education as not of bricks and mortar or at a particular place or particular time, but rather something that can be delivered at any place at any time," Bodman said.
Bodman discussed distance education, stressing that Ball State should offer as many resources as possible to a dispersed population to complement what the university offers.
When asked about hiring a diverse group of faculty, he said the amount of minorities in the faculty rose from 8.9 percent when he began in 1999 to 13.5 percent as of 2004, with the hiring of four more minorities this year. He also described a doctoral diversity fellowship program at WWU that recruits minority students, and upon completion, the student is offered an opportunity to have a tenure track at the university.
However, the forum did not only focus on the positive aspects of Bodman's work at WWU.
Joe Losco, political science department chairman, questioned Bodman about negative comments on his five-year performance review from WWU. In response, Bodman offered to share WWU president's letter with Ball State's provost search committee and gave insight into his interpretation of what the criticism meant.
He said the letter emphasized three topics: timeliness, communication and centralization.
The timeliness at which forms are processed in the WWU provost office needs to speed up, he said. He promised a turnaround of two days for paperwork that is brought to his attention.
He said there is a need for him to be more visible on WWU's campus in response to fostering better communication. To solve this problem, he said he plans to visit every department on WWU's campus over the next 18 months.
Regarding centralization, he said he believed that he has given responsibility to the various levels of the administration hierarchy and has decentralized as much as possible.
"He was very candid about the negative aspects of his review, and I appreciate that he was willing to share," Losco said.
However, some faculty were not satisfied with all of his responses.
Ione DeOllos, associate professor of sociology and vice president of the American Association of University Professors, said a number of faculty members commented to her they were dissatisfied with his response to a question about restructuring colleges at WWU. Bodman said this was a challenging time for him at WWU because he faced opposition from faculty. When asked what he learned while trying to complete this task and what he would change, he said, "The sad answer to that question is I learned very little, and I wouldn't do anything different."
DeOllos, who posed the question, said although she believed he did not adequately answer the question, the response he did give provided a great deal of insight about how he communicates with faculty.
"You would think someone in an educational institution would learn from his experiences to think of ways do things better," DeOllos said. "It appears he did not."
Bodman said he is confident he can facilitate the direction Ball State President Gora has for the university.
"I think now is the time for me to look around and see if I want to take on a new challenge," Bodman said. "It is an institution that I think has an opportunity to really move forward and to the next level."
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