Provost Announces 2 Positions

PROVOST NAMES TWO FACULTY MEMBERS TO NEW POSITIONS

     COLUMBUS -- Two faculty members have been nominated to fill
new positions in the Office of Academic Affairs at The Ohio State
University.  Richard Sisson, senior vice president for academic
affairs and provost, announced Wednesday (6/29) that he will
recommend the appointments of L. Alayne Parson as vice provost
for program evaluation and coordination and W. Randy Smith as
provost's faculty fellow.

     The nominations will be submitted for approval by the
university's Board of Trustees at its next meeting July 8.  The
appointments are part of the ongoing administrative restructuring
in the Office of Academic Affairs.

     "With thse appointments, the reorganization of the Office of
Academic Affairs is almost complete," Sisson said.  "Professor
Parson and Professor Smith have distinguished themselves as
leaders within the Ohio State academic community; both have
served on faculty committees dealing with issues central to the
university.  Professor Parson has demonstrated outstanding
qualities of academic leadership as associate dean in the College
of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.  I am excited about them
joining the provost's office, and I look forward to working with
them in these new roles."

          The positions are effective July 1 and do not involve
any salary increases beyond normal merit increases.

                        L. Alayne Parson
      Vice Provost for Program Evaluation and Coordination.

     Parson will fill the fifth of five vice provost slots; the
others were previously announced.  As vice provost for program
evaluation and coordination, she will have general responsibility
for academic programs and will be the provost's designee on the
Council on Academic Affairs.  She will have oversight
responsibility for program and accreditation reviews, serve as a
liaison with the Office of Research, the Graduate School and the
Ohio Board of Regents.

     Parson, a professor of mathematics who has taught at Ohio
State since 1973, also has been associate dean of the College of
Mathematical and Physical Sciences since 1992.  She has won
several university teaching awards, including the most
prestigious, the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, for
which she later served as chair of the selection committee.
Parson has taught a wide range of mathematics courses,
principally various versions of calculus.

     She has numerous research articles in mathematics journals
to her credit, as well as four four co-authored publications on
faculty mentoring, career support and campus climate for women
faculty.

     Active in university governance, Parson has served on more
than a dozen departmental and college committees, the University
Senate, the Student Financial Aid Advisory Committee, the Faculty
Salary Equity Review Committee, the selection committee for
Presidential and Medalist Scholars, the Council on Academic
Affairs, the Provost's Committee on Teaching and others.  She is
presently a member of the Oversight Committee on Restructuring.

     Parson, 47, received her B.A. from Radcliffe College and her
M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Chicago.

                         W. Randy Smith
                    Provost's Faculty Fellow

     The provost's faculty fellow will assist in coordinating
committee and council activities for the Office of Academic
Affairs; provide leadership in coordinating the upcoming North
Central Association Accreditation Review of the university, a
decennial process that entails a comprehensive review of all
university operations and requires management by someone with an
extraordinary grasp of university operations.

     Smith, 44, is an associate professor of geography whose
research focuses on historical development, contemporary
structural characteristics and patterns of recent change in North
American urban systems.  He teaches undergraduate courses in
world regional geography, North American geography, world
urbanization and urban geography, and a graduate course in urban
systems analysis.  A recipient of the Alumni Award for
Distinguished Teaching, Smith coordinates the Ohio Geographic
Alliance, an outreach program involving some 2,000 teachers in
elementary and secondary schools.

     He has been extensively involved in national professional
organizations, several statewide committees and task forces, and
in university governance.  He currently serves on the Ohio Board
of Regents Faculty Workload Committee and co-chairs the state
Faculty Committee on Articulation and Transfer.  At Ohio State,
Smith chairs the executive council of the Academy for Teaching,
the Health Care Advisory Committee, and the University College
Faculty Advisory Committee.  He has been active in University
Senate, including serving as chair of its Fiscal Committee in
1991-92 and its Council on Enrollment and Student Progress in
1992-93.

     A native of Canada, he came to Ohio State in 1978 after
receiving his Ph.D. at York University, where he also earned his
B.A. and M.A.

                                #

Contact: Richard Sisson, senior vice president for academic
affairs and provost, 292-5881.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Wed, 29 Jun 1994 09:35:40 -0500 (EST)]
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