Acting Chancellor Barbara Wilson said she will accept nominations from every corner of campus in her search to fill the crucial position of vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost.
Wilson, on the job for just a week, asked for the guidance of campus members on the search for a provost and a host of other issues, which includes the simultaneous search for a chancellor.
“I feel I’m going to need all of you in a big way,” she told members of the Senate Executive Committee at their Aug. 24 meeting.
Wilson said she already had received suggestions to replace Ilesanmi Adesida, who is set to step down from his post Aug. 31 and return to the faculty after serving as vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost since 2012.
Adesida announced his resignation a little over a week after Phyllis M. Wise resigned the chancellorship.
“My association with the university, and particularly its outstanding faculty and students, has been a source of deep pride and fulfillment for me,” he said in a letter to Wilson. “I recognize that current controversies are causing distraction to the administration and the student body, and I do not want to contribute to those distractions.”
Wilson said the resignations and surrounding controversies cannot be ignored, but she is committed to bringing the university together and moving it forward.
“I care deeply about this campus and I want to help,” she said.
Gay Miller, a professor of pathobiology and SEC chair, pledged her assistance and said she would serve as a “conduit” for provost nominations.
A professor of communication and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Wilson said she will draw on her proven collaborative background to re-instill trust and draw on the fullness of the campus to face collective challenges.
“We have some trust-building to do here,” she said. “We’re at a critical juncture.”
She said the hallmark of her administration will be openness.
“I think a lot about communication,” she said. “I want to be open and transparent, and I want to hear many voices. Communication is about listening, and I will be listening.”
Wilson also has experience working from the administrative side alongside campus faculty leaders. She joined the provost’s office in 2009 and served for two years as the executive vice provost for faculty and academic affairs. In that capacity, she provided campus leadership on strategic and financial planning and regularly presented information to the SEC and senate.
Though she was named dean of LAS last year, Wilson said she is relinquishing most of the operations duties to focus on the chancellor’s role.
“That will reduce my time significantly in LAS, at 10 percent or less,” she said of the new arrangement.
She has appointed professor Brian Ross, who served as interim dean prior to Wilson’s appointment, as the executive associate dean in during her absence.
Wilson has said she will not be a candidate during the search for a permanent chancellor.
She also thanked Adesida for his service to the university, which started when he joined the faculty nearly 30 years ago.
“I have seen firsthand how much this university means to him and how much pride he took in seeing the successes of our faculty, students and alumni,” she said. “He has left a permanent and positive mark on this university and he has my respect and my gratitude. Replacing him will be no easy task.”