Provost search postponed until fall 2011

President Troy Paino has postponed the search for Truman's next permanent provost until next year.

Interim Provost Richard Coughlin will extend his temporary position through the 2011-12 academic year. Paino said the decision was based on both budget cuts and finding the right person to take the position of Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs. The University is saving approximately $125,000 while the permanent provost position is vacant, Budget Director Dave Rector said.

"The decision was made for really one primary reason, and that is given the difficult budget times that we're facing and some of the difficult decisions that are going to have to be made over the course of the next 12 months or so," Paino said. "I thought it was best if we got the University through this time with someone who had a deep knowledge of the institution."

Coughlin has served as dean of libraries and museums since 1995. His experience, Paino said, will help with budgetary decisions that need to be made.

"I thought it would be, first of all, unfair to bring someone in the middle of this and all of a sudden put on his or her desk, ‘Oh yeah, by the way you have to cut $4 million,' and for them to even begin to know where to start on something like that," Paino said.

Paino said he probably will form a second search committee at the end of this academic year and possibly put out an advertisement for the job as early as summer 2011.

A new provost would

not start until January 2012 at the earliest, and possibly not until July 2012.

Paino said that with the administration concerned with the budget situation, there will not be enough focus placed on the search at this time.

"I'm confident," Paino said. "After we've made some of the tough decisions - by probably April or May we will have made those tough decisions - we will have prepared the University for next year. Then we can start focusing our attention on the search for the next provost."

Paino said the postponement will not lead to Coughlin's permanent appointment as provost.

Coughlin said this announcement will not majorly affect the provost's office or how its business is conducted.

"I think it was a good decision because sometimes when you do a national search and its not successful ­- especially a fairly high-level search like a president or a provost - you want to back off for a little while before you restart it, because a lot of work goes into it."

Coughlin said it might be beneficial to wait until more fiscal decisions are made before hiring a new provost, because applicants wouldn't necessarily understand the inner workings of the University.

"I do have an understanding of this university because of my time here," Coughlin said. "I do think that's useful as you go through a time of fiscal crisis."

Coughlin said he didn't think concerns of paying a provost's salary was the driving factor in waiting to hire a permanent VPAA.

"Any time you don't fill a position means you have funds that can be used for something else, but I don't think that would be the driving factor," Coughlin said.

Rector said the provost is very involved in academic budget discussions, which makes up approximately 70 percent of the general operating budget.

Asking someone new to enter into the middle of a budget crisis and make cuts would be difficult, Rector said.

"I think that having someone who has been at the University for quite a few years and understands how things are connected is going to be helpful," Rector said.

Rector said $150,000 is budgeted for the provost's salary this year. However, Coughlin, as Interim Provost, receives his salary for dean of libraries and museums plus an additional fee for his duties as Interim Provost. Coughlin makes $138,000 for both duties. Coughlin made $114,124 as dean of libraries and museums in 2009-10, according to the Official Manual of the State of Missouri.

The salary of a provost depends both upon the candidates qualifications and the salaries of provosts at comparable universities.