Students around campus | Photo by Jessica Fugett | The Wright State Guardian
Wright State University is going through a lot of changes, some of which include new positions and restructuring.
Douglas Leaman moves to Interim Provost
At the beginning of 2020, Sue Edwards was named president of the university leaving an empty spot in the provost position.
Douglas Leaman, who was currently serving at the dean of the college of science and mathematics, moved up to serve as the interim provost.
According to Leaman, he will serve as the interim provost until July of 2021 and will then assess whether he would like to apply for the permanent position.
“We have a lot going on on campus,” said Leaman. “Colleges are being formed, we’ve got new initiatives to improve retention and recruitment, and we’ve got a variety of high level searches for the empty positions we need to fill. It was decided we really couldn’t pause any of that to conduct the full blown external search for a new provost.”
An interim provost was needed in order to keep all of the planned initiatives moving forward.
Kathrin Engisch moves to interim dean of college of science and mathematics
Kathrin Engisch was then selected to take Leaman’s previous position.
In January, Engisch was named to the interim dean of the college of science and mathematics.
This is not her first time as interim dean, as she served this same position from 2015 to 2016.
Engisch admitted that the transition has been a bit difficult, but much easier after she identified Lynn Hartzler as the associate dean. Engisch also mentioned that the job has been very rewarding.
“I am very happy to have the opportunity to be back in this position,” said Engisch. “It is the most satisfying job I have had. To know that by what you focus on, you convey what is important, and this motivates others to focus on it, is a big responsibility, but is also very gratifying.”
While serving as interim dean, Engisch wants to continue building on what Leaman had started while also revamping the internship program and strengthening those relationships.
“We would like to see every CoSM student have some sort of experiential learning experience before they graduate,” said Engisch. “Currently, we are dramatically increasing the number of students who engage in undergraduate research, with the establishment of the ASK program, Applying Scientific Knowledge.”
Vice Provost enrollment management position renamed to chief recruitment and admissions officer
“Really that’s what it is and enrollment management is very broad and all consuming,” said Edwards. “And we had combined a lot of units under enrollment management that really I think needed to be broken apart.”
According to Edwards, this position’s sole purpose is to execute a strategic recruitment plan and will report directly to the president.
“When our students come here, we want them to feel as though they belong,” said Edwards. “That they’re welcomed and that we’re inclusive, and that we will support them, so that they can be successful. We want students to realize we care about them. So that’s what this person’s really in charge of.”
New position added: director of academic resourcing
Although the name is new, this person will essentially be replacing John Shipley, who served as associate vice president and controller for 10 months in 2019.
According to Edwards, the position will work closely with and in support of the chief financial officer (CFO).
“It’s basically somebody who understands academia and what it takes to actually put together finances and can help the university and the Provost in particular because academics is 80% of the budget,” said Edwards.
Burhan Kawosa, currently a senior lecturer in the college of business, will fill this position.
New office: Audit, risk, and compliance
This is not so much a completely new office as it is a combination of offices.
According to Edwards, audit, risk, and compliance all go together and need to work together and communicate on a day to day basis.
The creation of this office just puts them all next to each other allowing for easier communication and navigation of legal issues.
“Whenever we make decisions we actually do risk assessments,” said Edwards. “Those risk assessments are usually based upon issues where we must comply with certain federal regulations or state regulations, and that we need legal advice associated with. So when you’ve got those units, they were in three different locations. We had legal here, we had audit over the road and we had compliance, just here. So we’ve put them all in one location above me.”
Empty positions
According to Edwards, the hiring process follows a certain cycle, which explains why there are so many empty positions and faculty serving in interim positions.
“Academia has what we call a hiring cycle,” said Edwards. “And so the best time to actually initiate a higher is the start of fall, even though they’re not going to probably come on until the following fall. The cycle is, you ask for applications in the fall, you screen your applications, you might start interviewing at the start of spring, and then you hire for the start of fall in [20]21.”
The following is a list of positions that are empty or interims
- Provost (has interim)
- Dean of college of science and mathematics (has interim)
- Chief financial officer
- Vice provost for student affairs
- New dean for school of medicine
- Vice president for research and innovation
- Academic finance officer (interim)
- Chief admissions and recruitment officer
“I like to say what people see from the outside is the duck on top of the water,” said Edwards. “They don’t actually see the work that the duck is doing under the water to try and keep the duck afloat. That’s really what we’re doing is we are working as hard and as fast as we can to reestablish Wright State in this region and in this state.”
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