The university’s new interim provost plans to streamline academic planning.
Dr. George Sims was named interim provost of OCU and began work July 16.
The provost is a senior academic position ranking similarly to a vice president. The provost ensures coordination between academic programs and administration systems such as the registrar and library, Sims said.
“Overall, higher education in the United States is in a period of time when there’s a great deal of disruptive and tumultuous change,” he said.
These changes include national policies regarding financial aid, student needs and expectations, technological advancements, and the economy.
“It affects higher education because what we need to do and especially what our faculty members need to do to prepare students for life is all changing, and it’s changing pretty quickly,” Sims said. “What I want to introduce is the habit of understanding academic planning as the continuous participation in a set of planning processes.”
Sims said this ongoing process differs from making a single plan, following it for several years, then changing it.
Sims said this process includes four parts:
1. Observing the world and anticipating societal changes
2. Identifying and implementing new programs
3. Understanding and supporting academic student needs
4. Maintaining a process of academic program review
Sims said he meets with the school deans every two weeks and has a weekly meeting with President Martha Burger.
“I need to, in all of those meetings, consistently be asking, ‘okay, what are you learning as you’re scanning the outside, what ideas do you have for program development, new programs or revisions or improvements,’” Sims said. “I have to be asking, ‘where do you see opportunities to support students better and more effectively, so that they are successful academically, so that they persist in their degree program, so they graduate, so they get to the next step in life.’”
In June, Sims left his provost position at Spring Hill College in Alabama after over a decade in the role.
He joined the Registry, an organization of retired academic presidents and leaders who make themselves available to serve as interim officials at various universities. Sims said OCU administrators found him through this site.
Sims said he believes he was chosen to help fill a needed position and because he has experience as a provost at several colleges across the country.
President Burger said Dr. Sims will likely serve as provost the entirety of this academic year and possibly for next year.
“He really brings a great deal of experience with private universities,” she said.
Burger said he was chosen for his thoughtfulness regarding OCU’s connection to Oklahoma City. She said his thoughts regarding liberal arts resonated with her.
“He’s very erudite; he’s so able to explain what we all know to be true, which is how a liberal arts education benefits a person,” Burger said.
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