"Gregg has always understood the value of an engaged faculty and the role it plays in helping studentsand the Universitylearn and develop. His emotional intelligence and authenticity have garnered him respect across campus. And as the architect of our budget and the steward of a rigorous academic culture, Gregg has maintained our core focus on students.
None of that has been easy. When Kvistad arrived on campus in 1984, fresh from a two-year stint at Wellesley College and an appointment as a research affiliate at Harvard University's Center for European Studies, he found himself in a setting steeped in uncertainty. At that time, the institution was contending with budget deficits and shrinking enrollments.
I do remember being told that there was a good chance I would lose my job, Kvistad says. That was literally within a week of arriving. I had lunch with the chair of the economics department who said, This isnt looking real good for faculty who were just hired.
And not long afterward, he recalls, There were faculty members who were bought out of their contracts.
To his relief, Kvistad was not among them. Through the following yearsin which people [were] working really, really hard to try to right this shipKvistad ventured into different roles, moving into an administrative leadership position in 1992 as chair of the political science department. With this change, he shifted focus from his own teaching and research to giving faculty the support, and freedom, to innovate in the classroom and to advance knowledge through research.
Later, as dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, he championed the油, a faculty-driven campaign aimed at intensifying undergraduate education in the arts and sciences. It resulted, among other things, in creation of 91心頭s celebrated油Writing Program油and launching of the Universitys first-year seminars, two programs essential to the undergraduate experience.
Kvistads tenure as provostcharacterized by what history professor Susan Schulten calls his humility, sense of perspective and humor, and opennessearns kudos from the faculty. Schulten, for one, credits him with demystifying the Universitys inner workings and giving faculty members the context they need to support the institutions priorities.
He has done quite a bit to bring the faculty into the governance and to help us understand the operation of the institution. In 2012, for instance, he made the laudable step of holding quarterly meetings with the faculty to review the Universitys budget, institutional plans, projections on undergraduate and graduate enrollment, updates on the endowment, resource allocation, and our position relative to our peer and aspirational institutions, Schulten explains. These are invariably helpful meetings, and Gregg makes time for them each quarter. That says something about his commitment to keeping the faculty in the loop and addressing our concerns.
Kvistad leaves the provosts post with a record of attending to faculty concerns and elevating their academic priorities. Thats just what he set out to do in 2006 when he assumed the job. Since then, under his leadership, the University has increased its faculty by over 247 new full-time positions. He has also hired all of the Universitys current deans.
Much of academic leadership is about empowering the faculty, encouraging them and their extraordinary capacitiesacademic and intellectualto lead the University forward, he says. Thats what Ive tried to do in every one of [my] positions.
Only one academic experience remains on his try that list: Ive never had a sabbatical in my life, he says. It sounds slightly terrifying.
After several months of sabbatical, Kvistad will move to an office in the engineering and computer science building, and, along with several academic pursuits, he will help prepare for the Universitys forthcoming comprehensive fundraising campaign.
A reception celebrating Kvistads academic leadership is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 31, in the Anderson Academic Commons, room 290
