Provost's Message: Chapman Named Associate Provost

01/30/2018

Colleagues,

SLU’s adaptation for success in the changing higher education landscape includes the maturation and scope of our online courses and programs. This has been an imperative the deans and I have been discussing for several years.

 Early in Fall 2017, I commissioned the Distance Education Task Force to evaluate our capacity for consistent excellence and growth in online education. Members were:

• Michael Lewis, Associate Provost, Faculty Affairs and Development (co-chair)
• Tracy Chapman, Dean, School for Professional Studies (co-chair)
• Gary Barker, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
• John Buerck, Associate Dean, School of Professional Studies
• Kyle Collins, Director, ITS – Enterprise Resources
• Julie Howe, Instructor, Doisy College of Health Sciences
• Rebecca Hyde, Associate Professor, Pius XII Memorial Library
• Debie Lohe, Director, Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning
• Olgun Sahin, Assistant Professor, Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business
• Megan Shaffer, Career Services
• Joanne Thanavaro, Associate Dean, School of Nursing
• Kathleen Thatcher, University Assessment Coordinator

Complementing the results of similar initiatives in past years, the Task Force’s final report from December 2017 clearly evidenced the need for significant University commitments to:

• faculty development
• technology (infrastructure, course management systems, software, etc.)
• financial policies and accounting practices that support colleges/schools, departments, and faculty
• experienced, visionary leadership at the University level

 Regarding leadership, the Task Force recommendations – recommendations that were unanimously endorsed by the deans within Academic Affairs – included the following:

Establish a part-time senior level administrative position reporting within the Office of the Provost charged with serving as the University’s chief distance education administrator. The position is responsible for leading distance education strategy development, planning, forecasting, establishing a budget model to support distance education activities, and operationalizing the distance education standards.

SLU is fortunate to already have someone who meets the Task Force’s expectations: Dr. Tracy Chapman, Dean of the School for Professional Studies (SPS). Dr. Chapman served admirably in a similar, University-level role at Creighton University before we persuaded her to join us at SLU. Accordingly, I have appointed Dr. Chapman to serve in an additional role as the Associate Provost for Distance Education, effective Feb. 1, 2018.

Dr. Chapman’s role as Associate Provost is to work with University leadership and support the work of deans and chairs to strengthen the scope and quality of SLU’s online courses and programs. It’s her job to help me ensure that others throughout campus have the resources – fiscal, human, technological, and educational – to do theirs.

Although the new role is tightly aligned with her work in SPS, Dr. Chapman’s duties as SPS dean are being adjusted to accommodate these additional responsibilities; note that she will receive no compensation for her Associate Provost position. Organizational changes related to this appointment are that the Center for Workforce and Organizational Development, as well as Summer at SLU, will no longer be part of SPS; rather, they will become a unit under the Office of the Provost reporting to Dr. Chapman as Associate Provost.

As our University accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, and the U.S. Department of Education intensify their scrutiny of distance education, and as the need for Jesuit higher education grows nationally and internationally each day, SLU can and should extend our reach and educational impact. I applaud the deans for their shared recognition of this reality, and for their support of their colleague, Dr. Chapman, as she helps lead the way.

Respectfully,

Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D.

Provost