Bert C. Bach PROFILE : Breadth of Academic and Administrative Experience in Higher Education. Current campus position as Provost and Vice President was preceded by my serving a large state System governing board (Tennessee Board of Regents) as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (12 years) and, before that, serving at all levels of University administration (writing program coordinator, department chair, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Executive Dean of Faculty, and Interim President). Have served often in leadership positions-- on major planning, assessment, and program development councils being pursued over the years by both the state coordinating council (THEC) and governing board (TBR). Held faculty positions in public and private colleges and universities in five states (Georgia, New York, Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee) and compiled a record of teaching and scholarship sufficient to earn the rank of full Professor very early in my career. Breadth of Experience Involving Public Policy, Planning, and Assessment. As Vice Chancellor, had responsibility for working with campuses to establish the first strategic plan in the Tennessee Board of Regents System in the 1980s. Have been involved, at the System or campus level, in every major iteration of deliberating planning, assessment, performance funding, and benchmarking priorities that has emerged on the state scene for the last thirty years. In the public policy arena, have had at the System and campus levels major responsibilities for formulating policies and leading implementation of strategies aimed at strengthening public schools, improving University articulation with two-year institutions, facilitating interinstitutional cooperation, clarifying mission distinctiveness and governance, overseeing System (and later campus) responses to the mandates of a statewide desegregation Stipulation of Settlement, and enhancing student academic success through programs of mandatory assessment and placement. Provided significant leadership for the University s participation as one of eight (8) pilot institutions and the only one of its Carnegie Classification to pilot the SACS Commission on Colleges new Principles of Accreditation. Knowledge and Experience Extending Across K-12 and Postsecondary Boundaries. As Vice Chancellor for a governing board, led collaborative efforts involving the College Board, universities and community colleges, the State Board and Department of Education, and teachers from higher education and the public schools in developing and implementing strategies in what was called, in the 1980s, the Tennessee Collaborative for Educational Excellence. That Collaborative (which included the providing of a small grants program, facilitating through the State Department consonance between high school curricular frameworks and course unit requirements for university admission, and developing and implementing a broad program for feedback to the public schools concerning student preparation for college) became a recognized model in the South that was documented in presentations and publications by various bodies, including the governing board and coordinating commission in Tennessee, the College Commission of SACS, SREB, the College Board, and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. More recently, and extending to the present time, I have provided leadership with support from a major grant from the Kellogg Foundation in a number of community based initiatives involving University collaboration with public schools in underserved areas. As a University Provost, I have facilitated proactive collaboration between the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education directed toward improvement of P-16 education. That has resulted, for example, in the University s being awarded the largest number of Eisenhower grants of any University in Tennessee and in strong involvement by the Department of Mathematics in teacher education in both Tennessee and Virginia and by the Department of Computer Science in improving technology in underserved public schools. Finally, the SREB has selected for note and recognition the effectiveness of ETSU s participation in its grant-funded initiative aimed at enhancing training for public school leadership.
Commitment to Academic Excellence. As Vice Chancellor for the governing board of the largest higher education system in the state, provided leadership in establishing Centers and Chairs of Excellence at universities and Centers of Emphasis at two-year institutions, had major responsibility for successful strengthening of University admissions standards and establishing standards-based protocols for mandatory placement of students, and devoted focused attention to articulation programs with two-year institutions before efforts of those types became fashionable. As a chief campus academic officer, I provided administrative leadership for inaugural establishment of University Honors programs at three universities and for strengthening General Education with distinguishing program feature that reinforce skills in writing, oral communication, and using information technology. Most recently I have facilitated and provided support for a number of creative initiatives aimed at enhancing student learning and fulfilling expectations of the new SACS accountability expectations labeled the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). With major grant funding from the Kellogg Foundation, I had campus leadership responsibility for pursuing partnerships with three other universities (including two in SREB states, West Virginia University and the University of Texas-El Paso) in transforming curricula and assisting communities through incorporation of a community based and interdisciplinary model (that had originally been successful in the health sciences) to disciplines offered by four other colleges throughout the university. Commitment to Addressing Challenges and Opportunities Involving Technology in Higher Education. Demonstrated commitment to evaluating and initiating action to support expanded use of technology to enhance campus infrastructure and to improve student access, student learning, planning and assessment, internal communication, and marketing. As chief campus academic officer, I have sought to recognize changing times and opportunities for advancing technology as a culture for the campus. For example, I encouraged pursuit of an aggressive strategy for creating and maintaining the university s competitive advantage in the number of courses it offers and the number of students it serves through online courses at the same time that the University has also been a full participant in the TBR Regents Online Degree Program (RODP). Providing 24/7 full-text access to licensed information resources in the University Library has also been a major qualitative initiative that I championed as a strategy for supporting all students as well as for those being educated through distance technologies. The University is also pursuing a unique and highly successful partnering opportunity with fourteen (14) public libraries in six counties whereby it provides them cost effective library automation technology from a central server and thereby derives as a benefit to the University access to the holdings of all those public libraries as well as a valuable resource for its students who live in those communities. As a service to SACS and the region, I likewise provided administrative support for ETSU s participation as a pilot for the new Principles of Accreditation. A distinctive feature of that participation involved the University s developing an innovative and paperless online presentation of its reaffirmation report that has since become a model that has been much praised and emulated in the South. Multi-skilled Problem Solver and Team Player. Demonstrated commitment to facilitating teamwork, pursuing ambitious goals aggressively, conducting research and requisite homework for responsible decision-making, building coalitions, communicating effectively both in writing or orally in small or largegroup settings, maintaining fiscal accountability, demonstrating integrity, treating people with dignity and respect, and maintaining and demonstrating loyalty to institutions where I work, persons to whom I report and to whom I am accountable, and to colleagues. I take greatest satisfaction in having throughout my career--selected very capable staff with can do temperaments, delegated authority to them, supported them, and held them accountable for working with me and their colleagues to produce positive results that further pursuit of the vision and goals of institutions that we all serve.
EDUCATION: Public Schools, Whitesburg, Kentucky AB Eastern Kentucky University (English) MA George Peabody College (English) PhD New York University (English) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE: 1994 - Present Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee The Provost at ETSU, a regional comprehensive research university enrolling more than 13,000 students, has administrative responsibility for (1) maintaining high quality undergraduate and graduate programs of study, (2) for the University s research mission and its office of sponsored programs, (3) for its continuing studies and public service programs, (4) for academic support functions that include, among others, the University library and offices of admissions, records, financial aid, and student advisement, (5) for the University s e-learning initiatives, and (6) for the Division of Student Affairs. The Provost likewise chairs the University Strategic Planning Committee and administers the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning and the Director of Marketing. Noteworthy accomplishments of my tenure as Provost have included instituting major new programs and services (which have supported the University s fully realizing a change in its Carnegie Classification), facilitating pursuit of programs that expand and enhance the University s mission distinctiveness in the health sciences, supporting alliances with partners (e.g., Eastman Chemical Company) aimed at embracing the continuous improvement philosophy, instituting distinctive accountability and improvement protocols, encouraging responsible use of benchmarking tools, promoting aggressive pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities normally involving internal and external partnerships--to encourage discovery of new opportunities and competitive advantage for the university, and balancing respect both for due diligence and for reasonable risk-taking as a basis for energetic response to opportunities to innovate and lend support to new ways of doing things. Those accomplishments have also included specific efforts directed toward creative use of the web for enhancing communication and accountability, development of state-leading numbers of course offerings and students served in public universities via distance education, providing and in return receiving strong faculty support, making the decision to separate the administrative functions of Graduate Studies and of Research with the result of significant improvements in services and outcomes produced by both, overseeing administrative reorganizations that reduced overhead and created synergies (including merging of colleges with minimal internal conflict), and building an incredibly strong and dedicated staff in a period of extreme fiscal constraints.
1981-1993 Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, State University and Community College System of Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee Served as chief System academic officer for a governing board staff that served forty-six (46) public postsecondary institutions (six universities, the state s community colleges, and twenty-six postsecondary technology centers) and approximately 133,000 collegiate and 35,000 other postsecondary students. Principal responsibilities of the office included staffing academic program and policy review and approval, coordinating System-wide strategic planning, leading academic policy and guideline formulation, coordination of assessment and program review initiatives and of participation by the System in the state s Performance Funding Program, coordination of System response to a statewide desegregation Stipulation of Settlement, and major faculty development initiatives. Noteworthy accomplishments during the period of my tenure in office included providing leadership for selection and supporting to maturity new initiatives that emerged in the state those called Centers of Excellence at universities, Centers of Emphasis at two-year institutions, and Chairs of Excellence. The period also was characterized by establishment and statewide pursuit of the Tennessee Collaborative for Academic Excellence, an early and ambitious program growing from collaboration with the College Board that was aimed at strengthening academic programs in the public schools and enhanced college readiness for students. An overall design pursued by TBR Office of Academic Affairs during my tenure included, in addition to the Collaborative, major strengthening of admissions requirements at universities, an ambitious assessment and placement program for students aimed at enhancing their success, and a well-designed and supported comprehensive and well publicized plan that was pursued to reality in programs and services addressing needs of underprepared students. Interim President (1991-92), East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee 1978-1981 Executive Dean of Faculty, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee Chief academic officer with administrative responsibility for the following colleges and schools: Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Human Services, and Nursing. During the period I served in this position and previously as Dean UTC was the fastest growing public university in Tennessee. It was also a period in which the University which had emerged from its roots as a private institution--matured and emerged as a public institution (e.g., School status was achieved for the former departments of Nursing and of Human Services); the Brock Scholars Program was created; major endowment and programming were created for an Inaugural Series in the Fine Arts, Excellence in Music, Excellence in Engineering; and major improvement and focus on General Education occurred. 1975-1978 Dean of Arts and Sciences (and Professor of English), The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee 1974-1975 Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois 1973-1974 American Council on Education Fellow in Academic Administration As an ACE Fellow, carried out major assignment with the Illinois Board of Higher Education that involved review and analysis of cooperative programs involving over 30 Illinois public and private institutions that were receiving funding from the state s Higher Education Cooperation Act (HECA). 4
TEACHING AND RELATED EXPERIENCE Held faculty positions (with record of teaching and scholarship sufficient to rise to the rank of Professor early in my academic career) at public and private colleges and universities in five states--georgia, New York, Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee. Highlights included winning a University Teaching Award, serving as coordinator for a large English Composition Program and later as a department chair, and teaching in addition to my regular appointment in an English Department--interdisciplinary courses in American Studies. I have written or edited four books, numerous articles and monographs, and have made numerous scholarly and professional presentations in national, regional, and state associations or organizations. I recently taught a course in an educational leadership doctoral program, and I have over the years given lectures on higher education administration on occasion in that program at ETSU as well as in the program at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. In Illinois I was elected as a charter member (and was later re-elected) of the Board of Trustees of a new two-year institution, Richland Community College, and also served as a Director of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association. I have served on regional accreditation teams for both North Central and for the College Commission of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and for several years I have annually chaired one or more SACS off-site or on-site accreditation teams. I have also served on various advisory committees for the College Board and for SREB, and in Tennessee I have served on committees and task forces addressing various educational issues (at both the governing and coordinating board for higher education) that are too numerous to list. I served for ten years as a member of the Board of the Tennessee Center for Labor-Management Relations (a legislatively supported Center that was charged with conducting labor studies and enhancing labor-government relations) and for five years as a higher education representative to the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. I am currently President of the Tennessee College Association, a network of public and private higher educational institutions in Tennessee that seeks to promote the common interests of higher education in the state. 5