When Abiodun Goke-Pariola, former Otterbein provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, announced his resignation Dec. 9, 2011, Victoria McGillin was selected for the position on April 26, 2011, about four months later. McGillin then announced her resignation in June 2013 kick-starting the search for a new provost once again.
Kristine King Robbins, chief of staff and on the Steering Committee, distributed qualifications and expectations of a new provost and VPAA are detailed in an evaluation paper distributed at meetings and open forums involving candidates. The qualifications require the candidate to possess a degree from an accredited institution as well as be informed about the state of higher education. Expectations include the ability to serve as the primary advocate for Otterbein and to generally be capable of working with all departments in order to develop a stable academic base.
After a search process involving video interviews of 13 candidates taken from a pool of 63 applicants, four candidates were chosen by the search committee. The following three of the four candidates visited Otterbein for further evaluation.
Miguel Martinez-Saenz
Miguel Martinez-Saenz, who has held multiple positions at Wittenberg and St. Cloud State Universities and is being considered for the position of provost, visited Otterbein for an open forum on Dec. 3.
Martinez-Saenz received his associate’s degree from Tallahassee Community College in 1989, his bachelor’s for religion from Florida State University in 1993, his master’s and his doctorate degrees, both in philosophy, from the University of South Florida. His curriculum vitae document, available on O-zone, states that he is a native speaker of Spanish.
During his time at Wittenberg University from 2001 to 2011, he served as assistant professor of philosophy, director of first-year seminars, interim assistant provost for academic sciences, assistant provost for the first-year experience and associate provost.
Since 2011, Martinez-Saenz has served as dean, university college and associate provost for student success at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
At the forum Martinez-Saenz said that, if hired, he plans to stay at Otterbein as long as possible due to his goal to reside in one place for an extended period of time for his family. He said that the prospect of being hired for three years or less was not favorable for him.
Jeffrey Coker
Jeffrey Coker has worked at North Florida University as dean of undergraduate studies, Belmont University as assistant provost and has previously taught at Otterbein and Ohio State.
Coker received his bachelors at The University of Texas, his masters at Texas State University and his doctorate at Ohio University in United States intellectual, cultural and political history.
He had participated in forums throughout the day of Dec. 5. During his forum, he talked about his previous experience at Belmont and how much it has improved going from 2,700 to around 7,000 students by adding in graduate programs such as pharmaceutical and law graduate programs.
He plans to look into a more strategic approach to planning, but wants to take a look into what the community to see what their take on success is. This way, everyone can plan accordingly.
Scott Furlong
Scott Furlong received his bachelors in Government from St. Lawrence University, Cum Laude in 1985. He then received his masters emphasizing in policy analysis and his doctorate in political science from The American University in 1987 and 1993, respectively.
His current positions at The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay include dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, professor of political science/ public and environmental affairs, as well as being on the Executive Committee in Public and Environmental Affairs, the Executive Committee in Political Science and the Executive Committee in Graduate Program in Environmental Science and Policy.
Scott Furlong visited Otterbein for his open forum and presentation on Dec. 11. He emphasized his experience at Green Bay instituting new forms of FYS classes, his ideas for including technology and his leadership style.
“There is a lot of passion on campus for what’s going on here from an academic and cocurricular perspective” said Furlong. “I think whoever gets the job here will be lucky to work with this group of people”.
Kathy Krendl will decide who to hire as the next provost. There was an open forum for faculty, staff and students to discuss strengths and weaknesses of each candidate on Dec. 13. Krendl will take the results of that forum and written comments from the campus into consideration. There is no date set for a decision. Check Otterbein360 for updates.
