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Job Description

Valparaiso University
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Valparaiso, IN

Valparaiso University is a comprehensive university built on an historic foundation in the liberal arts and has grown over the years to boast outstanding graduate and professional programs in law, business, and engineering. This is a university very much on the ascent, as witnessed, for example, by its rankings in various national publications, its 2008 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization, and its attainment, in 2004, of a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

Known colloquially as Valpo, the University is a community of learning dedicated to excellence and grounded in the Lutheran tradition of scholarship, freedom, and faith preparing students to lead and to serve in both church and society.

The University now seeks a Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs to partner with its new president, Mark Heckler, as he and the University community seek to fulfill Valpo's considerable potential. The Provost is responsible for leadership and oversight of the University's academic program as well as its student affairs operation, including enrollment management. Having just received its ten-year NCA reaccreditation in 2008 and on the threshold of a new strategic visioning exercise that will define its potential for the next decade, the timing is perfect for a new chief academic officer to use this wide sphere of responsibility and influence to make a direct, personal impact on the future of this exceptional institution.

Valpo is an independent university in the Lutheran tradition, an institution that is informed by its faith tradition and in which faith is a part of everyday dialogue. As such, the University seeks a Provost who will be deeply dedicated to the institution's Lutheran mission and ideals and will build upon these tenets in shaping the University's future. It is also the case that over the past several years Valparaiso University has developed a strong focus on supporting student success, a distinguished faculty, a talented senior administrative team, dedicated board leadership, a balanced budget, and a well-defined mission. Its endowment, valued in FY08 at more than $200 million, has more than quintupled in the past twenty years. The operating budget has trebled in size to $90 million during this same time period. Nearly 4,000 undergraduate, graduate, and law students are engaged by 350 full- and part-time faculty, resulting in an academic environment that is ranked one of the finest in the Midwest by U.S. News and World Report and other publications. Additional information may be found at the University's website: www.valpo.edu.

Valpo's Provost will be an academic leader of vision, energy, enthusiasm, and substance. He or she will possess an earned terminal degree and a record of scholarship, teaching, and service commensurate with appointment as a full professor. Above all, the Provost will demonstrate a commitment to the highest ideals of the academy, outstanding communications skills, unquestioned integrity, exquisite judgment, courage of convictions, dedication to the place of the liberal arts at the core of a university that includes professional programs, and a compelling personality that engages easily with internal and external audiences. Critical to the new Provost's success will be a track record of successful leadership of organizations that have a profound respect for teaching, learning, scholarship, and service. Successful experience in strategic planning, personnel and organizational management, and resource allocation is desired.

Candidates should provide a cover letter describing their interest in and qualifications for the position in the context of the themes outlined above, along with a curriculum vitae/resumé. All materials will be treated as confidential and can be submitted via email to ValpoProvost@wittkieffer.com. Material that cannot be emailed may be sent to:

Confidential inquiries, recommendations of possible candidates, and questions concerning this search may be directed to Dennis M. Barden at (630) 575-6167 or Claudia Burdulis at (972) 789-5725.

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