Over the past few years Cabrini has seen many changes in academics and administration. Last year we welcomed Dr. George as our seventh president and saw our core curriculum become re-energized by establishing the Justice Matters initiative.
The college is still transitioning into a new phase as it searches for a new provost and vice president for academic affairs. The national search began this past fall and was narrowed down to four candidates.
Unfortunately two dropped out of the race, one pursuing another school and the other dealing with a personal circumstance. This left us with two candidates, but the college was unable to conclude the search successfully. The national search will now continue, as the committee will begin interviewing a new pool of prospects.
The provost, who is the college’s chief academic officer and second in command to the president, has many duties once they take office. They are responsible for the undergraduate and graduate curriculum and academic programs, overseeing the evaluation of personnel and assessment of programs ensuring their levels of quality, anticipating future developments and their impact on the institution and advancing the strategic plan of the college and all relevant academic priorities.
Whoever takes over as the new provost at Cabrini will face many challenges. The new provost will have to establish a firm ground for the “Justice Matters” curriculum, improve the retention rate and determine new graduate programs among many other tasks.
The “Justice Matters” program will have to be monitored closely by the new provost to make sure that it is effective. He/she will have to iron out any kinks and make sure that any problems that arise are fixed and do not hurt the program in the long run while anticipating what its future will look like.
Retention is one of the greatest challenges that the new provost will have to deal with as soon as they get to campus. It’s no secret that we have one of the lowest retention rates in the region and that we need to figure out ways to get these numbers up. The progress and effectiveness of the new provost will be measured in how these percentages change in the next few academic years.
Another challenge on the new provost’s agenda will be establishing new graduate programs. The grad program needs to be expanded and reevaluated within the next year.
Though this is a daunting time for the administration it is also an exciting time to be part of the Cabrini community. It will be interesting to see the institution grow and develop into its full potential. As students we will always be able to say that we attended Cabrini in its transition into the new age of college education.
