Provost meetings continue

Raymond Alden, the executive vice president and sitting provost at Northern Illinois University, held an open meeting Monday to answer questions from faculty, staff and students regarding the benefit he could provide to the university.

Alden grew up in Orlando and got his undergraduate degree from Stetson before attending University of Florida for graduate school.

He then went on to teach at several universities and became provost at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

During his time at UNLV, Alden hired more than 300 new staff members and increased funding from $20 million to more than $100 million due to the strategic plan he put in place.

Alden then became provost at NIU, where his main challenge was building back up the numbers of professors and retaining the talent.

"We have focused a lot on academic infrastructure," he said.

Working to get rid of deficits and manage investments with indirect costs is key, he said.
Alden said it is important for everyone to work on a team in order to bring about a top research university, something UCF aspires to be.

He also said that there is a lot of political pressure to make higher education more available, but offering four-year degrees at community colleges is not the answer.

He said it is a bimodal education system where some just want a degree for the sake of it, and some actually want an education. He also said there is a "hidden lie" behind community colleges wanting four-year programs.

Alden mentioned the importance of having a good student affairs department at a large metropolitan university.

The bigger a university gets, it is more challenging to have successful student affairs, but you can counteract that by having talented people in charge, he said.

He said one of the biggest challenges universities will have is in creating a diverse learning environment.

It is important to not treat all under-represented groups the same, instead you must know the culture, he said.

Diversity must be a goal within the administration, not just the students, Alden said.