Provost reflects on her tenure
Provost and Professor of Economics Jill Tiefenthaler leaves on June 30 to become president of Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Maria Henson (’82) of Wake Forest Magazine sat down with Tiefenthaler to discuss the University’s academic climate, its greatest strengths and biggest challenges, and her passion for higher education. Read more.
Categories: Faculty News
Provost search committee appointed
Wake Forest has named an interim provost and formed a search committee to seek a replacement for Provost Jill Tiefenthaler.
Tiefenthaler was named president of Colorado College in Colorado Springs earlier this month. Her resignation as provost will be effective June 30.
President Nathan O. Hatch announced today that Vice Provost Mark Welker will serve as interim provost. Welker, who is also the William L. Poteat Professor of Chemistry, joined the faculty in 1987. He was named associate provost in 2003 and vice provost in 2010.
Hatch also announced the formation of a search committee. “I look on the appointment of the provost as one of the most important decisions that a president makes, and this search has now become one of my top priorities,” Hatch wrote in an email to faculty and staff.
“We start this search from a position of great strength. I believe that we have the opportunity to build on the great successes that Jill Tiefenthaler’s tenure as provost has brought us, and I am convinced that this position will be a very attractive one to talented and experienced candidates.”
Hatch also announced the members of the search committee, which he will chair:
• Christa Colyer, Chemistry
• James Cotter, Senior University Appointments Committee representative
• Jill Crainshaw, Divinity School
• Timothy Davis, Law School
• Thomas DuBose, Medical School
• William Fleeson, Psychology
• Mary Foskett, Religion
• Cynthia Gendrich, Theatre and Dance
• Katy Harriger, Political Science
• Hof Milam, Senior Vice President and CFO
• Michelle Roehm, Schools of Business
• Rosalind Tedford, Z. Smith Reynolds Library
Mary Pugel, chief of staff in the President’s Office, will staff the committee. Lisa Prigohzy-Milius, managing director of Presidio Executive Search Inc., will serve as the search consultant.
Hatch said he hoped to fill the Provost’s position as soon as possible, but added that the search process “will conclude only when we have found someone who will provide the unique combination of academic and leadership talents our students, faculty and staff deserve.
“What we have all achieved together during the last four years makes Wake Forest University a very appealing place,” Hatch wrote. “The next provost will have the opportunity to help us realize even more fully Wake Forest’s goals of educating the whole person, attracting and retaining the very best teacher/scholars, and creating a vibrant campus community for students and faculty.”
Additional information about the search process can be found at http://search.provost.wfu.edu.
Categories: University Announcement
It takes a village to put on 'The Grapes of Wrath'
Sharon Andrews and her colleagues in the theatre and dance department would like to make the University Theatre the community’s theatre. Andrews, an associate professor of theatre, is directing the University Theatre’s current production of “The Grapes of Wrath” on the Mainstage Theatre.
The play has the usual large cast of undergraduates, but Andrews has sought to make it more of a community play, reaching out to faculty and staff and graduate students, and she is using the play as a springboard to partner with other academic departments on campus and a local high school.
“We want the theatre to ripple out to the campus community and to the larger community and integrate the community into what we are doing,” Andrews said.
Read more campus news at Inside WFU.
Read more about the importance of props in stage shows
Read more about stage manager Suzanne Spicer (’11)
The play, adapted by Frank Galati, is based on John Steinbeck’s classic 1939 novel of a desperately poor family fleeing the “Dust Bowl” of Oklahoma during the Great Depression for what they hoped would be a better life in California. In addition to about 30 undergraduates, the play’s cast also includes several graduate students and others with connections to Wake Forest. Owen Rask, the son of Provost Jill Tiefenthaler and Professor of Economics Kevin Rask, auditioned for and landed the part of Winfield, the youngest son of the Joad family.
The play features an old-time string bandcomposed of faculty and staff and others associated with Wake Forest: Martha Allman (’82, MBA ’92) (autoharp), director of undergraduate admissions, and her daughter, Ella (bass fiddle); Linda Bridges (accordion), director of admissions for the divinity school; Rick Davidson (banjo), husband of Joanne Davidson, who works in the Schools of Business; Cecilia Kucera (fiddle), a sophomore Presidential Scholar; and Bill McIlwain (MAEd ’94) (guitar). McIlwain also plays “the man with the guitar” in the play.
The production is presenting several opportunities for related events over the next week to explore the play’s themes. “More and more, we are striving to provide opportunities for theatre students to have a larger conversation about the issues that plays bring up,” Andrews said. “We are looking for shows that serve our students — first of all, the University theatre is the ‘lab’ for theatre students — but that can also be integrated with other departments on campus.”
Frank Galati, the playwright who adapted “The Grapes of Wrath” in 1988, will discuss the economic, social and political issues raised in the story with several Wake Forest professors on Feb. 24 at 4:30 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre. The panel will also include Worrell Professor of Political Science David Coates; Professor of Economics Robert Whaples; and cultural historian and journalist Brian Berger, who will take about the social context of the play. The panel discussion is sponsored by Wake Forest’s BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism.
Andrews is also taking the play’s themes of poverty, homelessness and the Great Depression to two history classes at Parkland High School, and the students are coming to campus to see the play. Wake Forest has a partnership with the IB program at Parkland.
Also, McIlwain is presenting a one-man musical, “Woody Guthrie, Tonight!,” in the Mainstage Theatre on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. The show will follow Guthrie’s life from Oklahoma to California to New York and feature 16 of his most memorable songs, including, “This Land Is Your Land,” and “So Long, It’s Been Good To Know You.”
“We want the community to know that Wake Forest University Theatre is your theatre and that we belong to the community,” Andrews said.
— By Kerry M. King (’85), Office of Communications and External Relations
Categories: Alumni News, Events, Faculty News, Staff News
Faculty, staff test new technology
Biology professor Dan Johnson demonstrates the iPad tablet computer to sophomore Rebecca Perry.
It was like Christmas morning when a dozen shiny, new iPads were delivered to Darcy Delph’s office this summer.
Apple’s latest bit of technology was eagerly anticipated by faculty members at who are assessing whether such electronic gadgets have a legitimate place in the classroom. “It’s a cool piece of technology and a lot of (educators) are interested in seeing how they can use it,” Delph said. Read more
Categories: Faculty News, Staff News
President Hatch kicks off United Way campaign
President Nathan Hatch leads the cheers.
Wake Forest kicked off its 2010 United Way campaign with a pep rally on Sept. 27 in the Green Room of Reynolda Hall.
Leading the cheers were President Nathan Hatch and Provost Jill Tiefenthaler, who were joined by the Wake Forest cheerleaders, the Demon Deacon and the Wake Forest band.
Dr. Hatch is chairing this year’s United Way campaign for Forsyth County. “I am delighted to be chairing this year’s campaign, but I can’t do it alone — the United Way needs the help of our entire campus to meet its goals,” Dr. Hatch said. “Wake Forest has traditionally been one of our community’s most generous supporters of the United Way.”
Employees will soon receive a packet of information from their department’s campaign coordinator that includes an opportunity to contribute to the United Way campaign. Payroll deduction pledges can be done online.
Employees age 40 and younger are invited to join Young Leaders United. This group is geared toward young professionals who commit to donating $250 and volunteering 24 hours in one year.
“Thank you for the many ways you already give of your time and your resources to serve our campus and our community,” Dr. Hatch said. “I hope you will decide to join me in providing United Way the resources it needs to continue making our community a better place to live and work.”
Categories: Events
