Provost Blog // Office of the Provost

Feb. 24, 2023

Supporting Students’ Mental Health

The 2022 Annual Report from Penn State’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) highlights several trends in student mental health over time. Among students who sought counseling, the report finds that freshman with high levels of academic distress and a history of psychiatric hospitalization were 48% more likely to withdraw from school. At the same…

Jan. 26, 2023

Spring 2023 Student Success Initiatives

It is an amazingly potentiating thing to have someone believe in you. Either because you have a genuine capacity or because their attitude to you is itself a prompt to acquire such a capacity; whether they are right to do so because they recognize a genuine capacity in you to succeed, or whether their attitude…

Nov. 22, 2022

MizzouForward Investments

In speaking with faculty applicants considered for recruitment via MizzouForward, a few things stand out. First, in almost all cases, candidates are eager to come to Mizzou because a colleague here is well known in the field and the unit that is recruiting has a strong national reputation. Second, all candidates are committed to excellence in…

Oct. 28, 2022

October Newsletter

Dear Colleagues, As of Oct 28, 2022, we have recruited 32 new faculty via MizzouForward! Learn more about your new colleagues. As we welcome these faculty to MU, we also continue to expand initiatives to support faculty who are already here and who serve our university with dedication. This newsletter summarizes the initiatives we have…

Sept. 21, 2022

Extension & Engagement Week 2022

Between October 10-14, all of us at Mizzou will celebrate Extension and Engagement Week. As always, the activities planned by Vice Chancellor Marshall Stewart and his team are informative, educational and fun. And this year’s theme is something we can all relate to: All Things Food. While the week reinforces MU’s commitment to our land…

May 13, 2022

Provost’s Colloquium: Student Success Research and Practice

In April 2022, we hosted the inaugural session of the Provost’s Colloquium: Student Success Research and Practice. The colloquium featured faculty presentations of research focused on the drivers of student success. These faculty shared their research: • Professors Kaleea Lewis and Julie Elman discussed their research on the role of mental health in helping students…

April 19, 2022

MizzouForward Process

As you all know, MizzouForward is an ambitious 10-year plan we have embarked on that aims to strengthen our outcomes in the areas of research productivity and student success. Faculty support, through merit raises and recruitment, is also a big part of the plan. The plan allows us to make investments in faculty and support…

Feb. 17, 2021

Looking Ahead for Higher Education

Planning for 2022 - and beyond Given all the uncertainties of a post-pandemic reality, and knowing that higher education had challenges even prior to the pandemic, what does 2022 and beyond look like? More importantly, what can we do today to plan for this future? To begin with, the data. Economy - At a macro…

Dec. 20, 2020

Action Items on Inclusivity

In June, I sent an email with a request for a “Call to Action” to Deans and Chairs. I asked them to look at their schools and departments, and to communicate to my office action items that they are currently taking or plan to take that will intentionally create a culture of inclusivity. I asked that…

May 13, 2020

Should We Continue to Plan for a Budget Cut?

We plan based on current information and current expectations of what the fall and the coming fiscal year will look like. This underpins our planned reduction in expenses for FY21 by 12.5% while also maintaining the flexibility to review every quarter as new information becomes available. Last week and over the weekend, we read about…