During the transitional period as the Washington State University community seeks its next President, we will be serving you as interim co-provosts. Like Interim President Bernardo, our overarching primary goal is to maintain continuity and momentum for the important efforts and initiatives our university community has underway. We will continue President Bernardo’s work to develop an increasingly service-oriented Provost’s Office that assists faculty and staff in the pursuit of excellence in research, instruction, and outreach. This includes promoting fairness, equity, opportunity and diversity, and creating a working environment in which faculty and staff have the ability to operate with as few impediments as possible. We also intend to promote an environment in which we all experience and contribute to a supportive university community. And finally, both of us wholly subscribe to, and will strongly support the President’s “can do” philosophy, whereby our first instincts will always be to harness creativity, effort, and ingenuity to figure out how things can get done, rather than first ponder reasons why they can’t.
Both of us are accustomed to working in collaborative leadership teams and look forward to working with each other and President Bernardo. We believe that a second pair of eyes can provide both valuable insights and oversight, and that a second pair of hands can increase productivity and responsiveness. Nevertheless, each of us will take the lead on certain matters to maximize efficiency, clarity, and output.
Erica Austin, as our specialist in academic affairs, will continue to facilitate the fulfillment of WSU’s Strategic Plan, with a particular emphasis on providing opportunities and support for faculty and student success. Her areas of primary responsibility will include enrollment management, undergraduate education, institutional-level accreditation, and academic policy. The Provost’s Office will take advantage of her professional expertise in health promotion and communication campaigns to develop clear, useful, and helpful mechanisms for faculty and staff to obtain information from and provide input to the Provost’s Office.
Ron Mittelhammer, as his primary areas of responsibilities, will work on issues and initiatives relating to faculty affairs and personnel issues, including tenure and promotion oversight; annual reviews; professional leaves; salary programs, appointment and reviews of chairs, directors, and deans; hiring plans and approvals; and signing of offer letters. He will also be involved in budget and finance issues related to the operation of the Provost’s office, and will apply his professional expertise in economic and statistical analysis to issues of institutional efficiency and effectiveness, economic impact, and big-data research, as well as coordinate Provost Office relations with the Graduate School, the Office of Research, and International Programs.
We will make decisions jointly on substantial budgetary, legal, and policy matters, trading lead roles depending on the specific topic at hand. Both of us will be available separately, or together as appropriate and feasible, to visit with interested groups and to answer questions about the University’s academic enterprise. We are providing a detailed summary of our primary duties and responsibilities to your chairs, directors, deans, and chancellors to further assist in deciding where to direct questions and suggestions, but the Provost Office staff always will be available to help if you are unsure where to direct your issue.
We consider it an honor and great privilege, as well as a high responsibility to serve the University during this time of transition. We are looking forward to working with you and continuing the journey of establishing Washington State University as one of the most successful and impactful land grant universities in the nation and world.
Sincerely,
Erica and Ron