Provost Kim Wilcox introduced plans Tuesday to revamp his office staff with the addition of positions that have been absent from the university in recent years.
A small change in terminology is being made to keep MSU on the same page as other universities — all assistant provosts will now be titled associate provosts, Wilcox said at Tuesday's Executive Committee of Academic Council meeting.
In addition to some name changes, Wilcox said he wants to internally fill an associate provost position and an associate provost for human health issues position.
Wilcox said he is limited by time constraints to be able to meet with all the groups he would like to, and additional staff members would help him be more accessible.
The new human health issues position would be important in the College of Human Medicine expansion to Grand Rapids, officials said.
The last piece of his plan is re-establishing an MSU vice president position, which John Hudzik, current adviser to the provost, would assume in January. Hudzik would undertake the vice president role for two years and would act mainly as an international spokesman for the university.
Linguistics Professor Karin Wurst said the idea of the vice president position is very good for MSU.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the vice president role will be established shortly. However, the other positions in the provost's office will have some more time to explore and find people to fill them.
Vision in action
MSU's sesquicentennial year is almost complete, but with initiatives such as Simon's "Boldness by Design" plan gaining momentum in recent months, the university hopes to continue plans for improvement in the years to come.
Wilcox introduced the beginnings of five task forces that will look at the five different areas of Simon's initiative and start creating recommendations.
"There are five themes that will hopefully drive decisions and directions for the next several years," Wilcox said.
The executive committee not only approved the creation of these 15-member working groups, but selected six representatives to hold Academic Governance seats on each committee.
