Current Arts Dean Gage Averill has been appointed to serve as the provost and vice-president academic pro tem for UBC Vancouver.
Averill will be leaving the role of arts dean and stepping into the pro tem role on April 4, 2022. Current Provost and VP Academic Andrew Szeri was not reappointed to his role last summer and will finish up his term in July.
In a broadcast email, Prescient Santa Ono wrote that this overlap will “allow time for transition.”
Averill was recommended to be the pro tem provost by an ad-hoc committee that met last fall, according to Ono. The president praised Averill’s experience in leading the faculty of arts and “engaging in campus-wide initiatives."
Ono thanked Szeri for his contributions to the university and his “leadership through the pandemic.”
Ono also announced that the university will be launching a search for a new provost and vice-president.
The search committee consists of the president as chair, four members of the Board of Governors (two faculty members, one staff member and one provincial appointee), Dean and Vice-Provost Susan Porter, three members of the Vancouver Senate (including AMS president-elect Eshana Bhangu), Senior Advisor to the President on Indigenous Affairs Sheryl Lightfoot in her role as a faculty member, Associate Professor Minelle Mahtani and students Julia Burnham and Moloud Mazaheri. Burnham just finished her third and final term as a student senator.
Student Board of Governors representative Max Holmes tweeted his disappointment in not having a student governor on this committee, but praised the inclusion of Bhangu and Burnham.
“Student governors are the only type of governor excluded from the UBC-V Provost Search Committee,” Holmes tweeted. “I guess our input isn’t valued in the search for the lead academic of UBC-V. I’d say I’m surprised but exclusion from leadership and opportunities is normal.”
Ono encouraged anyone with thoughts on the “characteristics and qualities you think are important in identifying the Provost and Vice-President, Academic” to contact president.staff@ubc.ca.
In an extensive message to the community posted today, Averill wrote that serving as the dean of arts has been “the greatest challenge as well as the absolute high point of [his] academic career.”
“No statement as short as this can begin to hint at the outpouring of creativity, pedagogical innovation, public scholarship, research impact, and leadership that I have had the privilege to witness over the years,” he wrote.
Averill wrote that Professor Stefania Burk will serve as the pro tem dean of arts from April 4 until July 1, when Dr. Janice Stewart will take over until the new dean is able to begin. The new dean of arts will be announced in “the coming weeks,” Averill wrote.
“I am fortunate to have been entrusted for the next year with the role of Provost and Vice President Academic pro tem in a period of great importance and change for the university, and I look forward to working with President and Vice Chancellor Ono, his Executive team, the Deans, the Board of Governors and with the faculty, staff and students in the UBC Vancouver community on the tasks ahead.”
This article has been updated to reflect that Lightfoot is on the committee in her role as a professor, not as a senior advisor.
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