The MSU administration has done the university justice this time by conducting an external candidate search for the open position of MSU provost. Last summer, the MSU Board of Trustees summarily appointed former Provost Lou Anna K. Simon to the position of president of MSU without a comprehensive search. Furthermore, Trustee Dave Porteous recently had the gall to say, "The selection of provost is the most important decision that an institution like MSU has." What about president?
Nonetheless, reform is better late than never. In the search for a provost, a committee of professors, students and staff members was formed to advise the board on its choice. We applaud this change in strategy toward more input from multiple sources.
Kim Wilcox, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas, will most likely be the board's choice for provost. As a graduate of MSU, Wilcox is already acquainted with campus. He undoubtedly has some feelings about it as well, which is an advantage.
With Wilcox as provost and Simon as president, MSU will no longer have the mix of business and academic experience that existed during the stay of former President M. Peter McPherson. Simon might not be as outspoken and charismatic as McPherson, but she has more academic knowledge. What she and Wilcox might do with their academic backgrounds will be interesting.
The reorganization of the liberal arts at MSU will almost certainly reappear at some point in the future. This could be the biggest task facing the new provost. If he is chosen, Wilcox needs to approach this task in a different way from Simon. Shortly before her appointment as president, Simon was working on the liberal arts project, but talk has not yet resumed on her future plans.
The new provost needs to be more receptive to faculty and student concerns about the reorganization of the liberal arts. This project involves the restructuring of many academic programs and includes splitting up the College of Arts & Letters. The goal is to give all students at MSU a stronger background in liberal arts, but many professors fear this will force departments such as English to be service departments for other majors, thereby losing some of their autonomy. When there is a risk of weakening certain programs, it behooves the provost to listen to the people who run those programs.
More than a year ago, Simon did not heed these concerns as much as she should have. The new provost must make a top priority of listening to student and faculty concerns regarding liberal arts reorganization. If he is selected, Wilcox should make an effort to be more accessible and open to suggestion than his predecessor.
A Simon-Wilcox tag team of academics is well equipped to handle MSU's academic future. The university will benefit most, however, if they are fair and open with their decisions. We will soon see if this is the case.
