Published: May 15, 2008 02:17 am            

Maria Rose named FSU’s new provost, VP of academic affairs

FAIRMONT — Fairmont State has a new provost and vice president of academic affairs.

Maria Rose, who has held the position in an interim capacity for the past year, has retained the position permanently.

On Wednesday, Rose said she had never even thought of being provost, but she has enjoyed the last year quite a bit.

“After doing it for a year, I’ve enjoyed it and found some parts challenging,” Rose said. “That’s why I want to continue.”

The university provost is basically second in command at the institution. She is the chief academic officer and is charged with overseeing academic programs.

Rose noted a fair amount of her job is helping academic departments create classes, determining how they will connect with existing courses and when to offer them. She also monitors the university’s budget to make sure it can afford to offer the course.

Even though Rose’s permanent position was just announced this week, she’s not resting on her laurels.

She is working with the academic departments and schools, specifically the deans, to update the university’s five-year strategic plan. Together, they’re working on developing learning outcomes for each course and assessments to measure whether or not students have achieved those outcomes.

All of this is in preparation for an accreditation visit in a few years, Rose said.

“Even though it’s not for a few years, we must have things in place and data in hand,” she said. “Working toward the long-range goals is exciting.”

She is also heading up a team to redesign the current program review process, which looks at each course and determines if it’s in need of changes or upgrades.

“Nothing ever stays the same,” Rose said. “There’s lots of exciting things we’re working on.”

For the past year, Rose has been serving as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. In 2007, she was one of 10 college educators in the nation to receive the Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award. From 2004-2007, she served as vice president for academic services and before that as director of retention.

Rose was the author of a $1.8 million grant from the federal Title III Strengthening Institutions Program, which brought Fairmont State closer to reaching its major goals for student success and institutional excellence. FSU received one of 50 grants awarded from among hundreds of proposals from across the nation.

She has been a part of the Fairmont State faculty for more than 20 years. She has taught developmental writing, developmental reading and study skills, and has coordinated the campus-wide peer tutoring program. In addition, she has been coordinator of reading and writing for the Academic Development Center; she has served as interim chair of academic studies for Pierpont Community & Technical College.

Rose lives in Fairmont with her husband, Tom. They have one adult son, Alex.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.

        

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