| Broder urges AU to advertise strengths, successes BY ADRIENNE FRANK In her first annual address as interim provost, Ivy Broder reviewed faculty accomplishments and detailed new initiatives, praising the AU community’s commitment to excellence despite many “distractions.” However, she warned that the year’s successes “will be short lived if not part of a continuing culture of . . . growth and rejuvenation.” 
Photo by Jeff Watts
Interim Provost Ivy Broder addressed the faculty last Wednesday. “The test is to see how many Trumans we win in the next half decade, how many more Ford Foundation grants we receive, which NSF panels we serve on, which university presses bear our name,” said Broder during last Wednesday’s address at the Katzen Arts Center. “We must be self-conscious about it, determined that the path we take must reflect not only where we want to be, but who we are and where we have been.” Among AU’s greatest strengths, said Broder, is the faculty, whose “advice and expertise is sought all over the world.” In 2005, AU faculty authored 78 books, monographs, and government reports; 116 book chapters and refereed conference proceedings; 135 refereed journal articles; 20 poems, stories, plays, or exhibitions; and served on 143 editorial boards and 36 juries or award selection committees. Their work appeared in 95 performances and exhibitions around the world. As both provost and parent—Broder’s daughter, Alana, a master’s student in CAS, will graduate this spring—she praised the faculty’s ability to guide and inspire students, all of whom are “someone’s sons and daughters.” “I have witnessed firsthand the direct causal effect of your carefully crafted assignments, the thought-provoking classroom environments that you have created, your professional expertise, and your mentoring on the maturation, confidence, and professional development of one young woman,” she said. “[Alana] said to me last week that the education she got at AU was the most important experience of her life. Well, I know she is not an isolated example.” During her hour-long address, Broder also announced the winners of the newly established Presidential Fellowship for faculty “whose work consistently conveys significant new insights and appears in influential publications.” Richard McCann, Department of Literature, will supplement his 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship, and Leslie Gill, Department of Anthropology, will use hers to support field work in Colombia. Broder also highlighted AU’s many awards and accolades, including last month’s announcement that the school has been named a 2006 Honor Institution by the Truman Scholarship Foundation. The only ranking that disappoints her, however, is AU’s No. 85 position on U.S. News & World Report’s list of top universities—even though AU rises in the rankings each year. “I know that the reality of our university, the faculty, the students, the programs, is far better than the perception in the academic marketplace,” she said. Broder said faculty and administrators must do a better job of advertising AU’s strengths, so that its academic reputation is “properly recognized.” “The picture I see now at AU, and the one that we have to communicate to everyone on the outside, is that we are an incredibly strong institution, one that cares deeply about its students, a place where knowledge and artistic creation coexist with engagement with the community and the world,” she said. Broder began her address by reflecting on her 12 years as dean of faculties and dean of academic affairs. Despite many successes—including “transforming” the faculty by hiring more women and people of color and establishing the Center for Teaching Excellence—Broder said her proudest moment came four years ago, when SOC’s John Douglass invited her to “take a place at the table” alongside the provost and other senators at the newly reconstituted Faculty Senate. “This was the kind of reinforcement that every administrator hopes for,” Broder said. “I was truly touched by that invitation and everything that it represented.” |
