Three finalists for provost and vice president for academic affairs selected by the provost search committee last Friday will spend the next three weeks visiting with students and faculty on campus, according to John Krout, director and professor of gerontology and chair of the provost search committee.
The candidates, David Gordon, associate provost for personnel and diversity at SUNY–Geneseo; Matt Gromko, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bowling Green State University; and Kathleen Rountree, associate provost for undergraduate education at UNC–Greensboro, will each spend two days in sessions with students, faculty and the community.

Gordon will visit Monday and Tuesday, followed by Rountree on April 23 and 24. Gromko will visit April 30 and May 1.

“Hopefully, the campus is as excited as we [the committee] are about the process,” Krout said.

The committee began its search for a provost in February, one month after Provost Peter Bardaglio announced he would leave on sabbatical for the remainder of the academic year and resign in May. Jim Malek, provost of the college from

1998-2001, began as interim provost Feb. 1. The college hired consultant Jamie Ferrare of the firm Academic Search in January to attract and screen candidates.

The finalists were selected from the committee’s off-site meeting with a pool of semifinalists, Krout said. He declined to release the number of applicants interviewed in any of the preliminary or semifinalist rounds.

Krout said the committee hopes to reach a final decision soon.

“The president is hopeful we will identify a successful candidate [so] the candidate would accept the decision and be in office by the end of the summer,” he said. “How long that takes, I really wouldn’t guess.”

During his visit this week, Gordon said he will look for feedback on campus issues, and discuss his ideas on diversity and incorporating civic engagement into the student experience. Gordon also said he is interested in faculty development.

“Ithaca College, like many colleges, is in the process of a generational turnover,” he said. “I would … make sure the new faculty members are appropriate for the college, but also that they are integrated well into the college culture.”

As former chair of a subcommittee for SUNY–Geneseo’s

reaccreditation with the Middle States study, Gordon said his knowledge would be beneficial as the college moves forward with its own reaccreditation in the fall.

Rountree said at UNC, she works with similar issues as the college’s provost, including service learning, undergraduate research programs, and recruitment and retention. She said she fits different pieces of the student experience together, like study abroad and on-campus movements like sustainability, and looks forward to discussions about similar integration at the college.

“The students who graduate from Ithaca College should be the students who are going to be the leaders in their life and their profession and their communities,” she said. “How are we preparing them?”

Gromko said nine years of experience as vice and interim provost office at Bowling Green State University have given him exposure to program review, which he hopes to bring to the college —

particularly for issues like diversity. While at the BGSU, Gromko said he has helped the institution develop a distinctive identity, and will discuss doing the same on Ithaca’s campus.

“I would … study the institution’s history and … enter in a collaborative process to come to a common understanding,” he said.

Krout said the community should take interest in the finalists.

“We can’t meet everyone’s schedules,” he said. “We hope [they] take advantage of the opportunity.”