UPDATED: JULY 15, 2008
New provost moves to campus
A few hours into his first day as provost, Scott Bass is already planning to reach out to the campus community in ways that go beyond private meetings and large gatherings.
As AU’s new chief academic officer, Bass intends to do a lot of listening. It’s a model of leadership that he pursued with notable success during his 12 years at the University of Maryland–Baltimore County (UMBC), where he was vice president for Research and dean of the Graduate School.
“Input is critical. You have to understand the culture, the setting, the leadership, the faculty,” says Bass, who at UMBC oversaw the doubling of external funding, launched recruitment strategies that boosted graduate enrollment by 70 percent, and played a central role in strategic planning.
Bass, who assumed his role on July 1, is still working out what form the input will take—perhaps a Wiki site, or something on Blackboard—but he’s looking forward to starting the process as he dives into his new position.
The provost will provide leadership for AU’s six schools and colleges, the University Library, the Washington Semester Program, AU Abroad, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Office of Enrollment, the Office of Institu-tional Research and Assessment, Sponsored Programs, the Office of the Registrar, and the Career Center.
On his first day, he was, of course, still unpacking in the midst of a busy schedule of meetings. There were bags of documents in his new office, and 72 boxes were due to arrive soon, full of the journals and books used in his scholarly research. A distinguished professor of sociology at UMBC and a nationally known scholar in gerontology, Bass has written or edited eight books, authored numerous papers, and served as coeditor of the journal Aging and Social Policy.
The international atmosphere at AU suits him well. His scholarly work brought him overseas on numerous occasions, including a memorable time in Japan for a Fulbright Research Scholarship. Two of his three sons went to Japanese schools that year, and the family has fond memories of the friends they made in spite of the language barrier.
Bass holds a combined doctorate in psychology and education from the University of Michigan, and began his career as a professor at the University of Massachusetts– Boston, where he became director of the Gerontology Institute, graduate program director of the PhD program in gerontology, and head of the Gerontology Center prior to his post at UMBC.
The screen saver on his computer is a reminder of his life outside of academia. It’s a photo of his wife kayaking through an Alaskan fjord during one of the couple’s outdoor adventures. Elyse Jacob is a competitive tennis player who also coached squash at Harvard, where she went to graduate school in government. Bass likes to hike, bike, and travel. Together they’ve hit the trails in national parks from New Zealand to South Africa.
Now “empty nesters,” with two sons graduated from college and the youngest starting as a freshman this fall, the couple has moved to an apartment in downtown Bethesda.
Bass’s appointment was announced in May after a national search. “I am thrilled to join the AU community and become part of a dynamic leadership team forging an ambitious plan for the university’s future,” he said of his appointment. “It is an honor to be selected as the chief academic officer of one of the nation’s great academic treasures. With the support and engagement of all members of the AU community, including its friends and alumni, we can move forward into an academic golden age, reflecting a vision of the new American University—dynamic, diverse, inclusive, creative, and contributing in significant ways to a better global society.”
