Provost candidate Y.T. Shah answered questions Thursday about his main priorities for Ball State University - many of which dealt directly with students' educations.
The first of four provost candidates to visit campus for open forums, Shah is provost and executive vice chancellor for the University of Missouri-Rolla.
Chris Kurtz, Student Government Association vice president and member of the provost search committee, was one of few students to attend the forum.
He said the low student turn out was disappointing.
"I'm not really sure the best way to get students involved," he said. "Today was a difficult day with Spring Break coming up - many students were gone."
Students don't see how the provost will directly affect them because the responsibilities of a provost are more focused on long-term goals, Kurtz said.
However, the programs and decisions the provost implements will affect students' futures, he said. When students are trying to get jobs, the value of their Ball State degree will depend on how the university is doing at the time, Kurtz said.
During the forum, one faculty member asked Shah what his main priorities would be as provost at Ball State.
"One is to do the right thing for the institution to bring the academic stature of this institution to a high level," Shah said. "I fully agree with the president's desire to improve academic stature. If you lose your stature and lose your quality, you lose everything."
Shah's second priority would be to make sure the university is providing the best learning environment for students, he said.
"I need to make sure that the students are getting the best academic experience and the best environment in which to succeed," Shah said.
He said under these two main goals he would also want to recruit diverse and high-quality students and faculty, improve educational processes for retention and graduation rates and improve curriculum and teaching methods.
Shah also focused on the idea of improving the research culture of the university by getting sponsors for faculty scholarship. This merges into the view government, business and other universities have of Ball State's academic image.
"It's not enough that you do well," Shah said. "I think other people should know that you do well."
Another faculty member asked Shah about his views on the immersion programs Ball State is becoming well known for.
"To be honest with you, I learned that word when I arrived at Ball State," Shah said. Until he could do further research he would only say that immersion programs set Ball State apart.
Ralph Baker, professor of political science and president of the Ball State chapter of the American Association of University Professors, asked Shah how Ball State could reach a higher standard of academic stature while the university was suffering from obstacles such as low faculty salaries, heavy work loads and decreasing resources.
"It really comes down to how strong-willed we are in what we want to be," Shah said. "Don't let the lack of resources beat you down, figure out a creative way of finding new resources."
O'Neal Smitherman, chairman of the provost search committee and vice president of information technology, said he was pleased with the questions faculty posed and the answers Shah gave.
"He clearly has good personal experience in these areas," Smitherman said, "and he's dealing with and has already dealt with many of the kinds of challenges we are dealing with here at Ball State."
Joe Losco, treasurer of the AAUP and political science chairman, said Shah did a good job explaining why someone with an engineering background wanted to come to a liberal arts university like Ball State.
Shah said he was very supportive of a broad-based liberal arts education for undergraduates.
"A general education is very important for students because students in this day and age don't know where they are going to end up," Shah said.
From the research the faculty has done, Losco said, Shah had worked under a demonstrative chancellor who was not well liked at UMR.
"He held up pretty well with faculty during that," Losco said. "From what I heard from faculty, he looked for ways to solve problems that were fairly consensual and supported."
Shah decided to step down from the provost position at UMR at the end of this year. UMR has a new chancellor, and Losco said at typical universities, cabinet members submit resignations when a new president or chancellor takes over.
"I think (Ball State) is heading in that direction, but it's taking a lot longer without the voluntary leavings that are normally at universities," Losco said.
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