University of Portland President Fr. Mark Poorman announced that the school is in the final stages of hiring a new provost. The provost search committee is inviting UP community members to participate in virtual forums with the three finalists for the position. The finalists are:
Herbert Medina, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Portland
Elizabeth Throop, the provost and Vice president for Academic Affairs at Frostburg State University
Brian Till, the former dean of the College of Business Administration at Marquette University
After current University Provost Thomas Greene announced that he will be retiring this June, the school has been looking for someone to fill his position. In an email to all faculty, staff and students, Poorman emphasized the importance of having community members take part in the hiring process because of the way the provost affects everyday life at the university.
“Under normal circumstances, these individuals would come to campus for a series of face-to-face interviews and forums. However, due to travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines, such in-person interaction cannot take place,” Poorman said. “All members of the University community are invited to participate in a series of virtual forums with our finalists using the Zoom platform. During these forums, participants will hear directly from our finalists and will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in dialogue.”
The forums will be recorded and posted to the Provost Search Portal on PilotsUP, for those who cannot attend. In the email, Poorman shared some other resources on the portal for community members during this search. These include links to the finalists’ resume, links for the Zoom forums, forms for questions for the finalists, and evaluation forms.
Here is the schedule for the virtual forums:
Fiona O'Brien is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at obrienf21@up.edu.
