Nancy Curtin started as Interim Provost on June 16th. With a big incoming class and a new president, what does this mean for her future?
Since she started at Millikin in 1997, Curtin has almost done it all. She’s held various faculty positions and was previously the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences before taking the job as Interim Provost.
The previous Provost, Mary Black, left Millikin because of a job offer. This offer was for the Dean of the College of Humanities, Arts & Sciences at the University of Northern Iowa.
Before Black left, both she and her assistant, Jennifer Moore, knew that it should be Nancy Curtin to fill her spot as Provost.
“Even then, Mary was like, ‘Nancy for Interim Provost,’ and I was like, ‘I second that notion,’” Moore said.
Curtin accepted this position as Provost to provide stability to Millikin in this time of change.
During the time that Curtin was offered this position, Millikin was searching for a new president. Having been at Millikin for over 20 years, Curtin thought she could help lead Millikin’s future.
“I could not have asked for a better follow-up boss to have,” Moore said.
Curtin has been working with the new president, Dr. Dean Pribbenow, to discuss Millikin’s academics and plan for this new school year. Together, they have been looking at old and new initiatives and focusing on both the previous successes and difficulties.
With many new staffing changes, Curtin has been trying to welcome them the best she can while also training them for their respective positions.
Now that classes have started and she is officially the Interim Provost, Curtin wants to focus on the academic quality in classes. She aims to improve programs so that students will have more resources available to them.
This focus is as important now as ever, as Millikin currently has the biggest incoming class since 2020, with 545 new students starting their fall semester. Because of this, all faculty and staff at Millikin have had to expand class sizes and adjust schedules for these new students.
“I give the deans, directors, and faculty all the credit for them being flexible and adaptable and increasing enrollment caps on these classes,” Curtin said. “So that’ll be a big initiative for me this year, along with figuring out what programs we can grow and add.”
These changes are necessary to ensure that students get the best education possible while they are at Millikin. This will guarantee that no matter which program students are in, they have updated resources available to them.
“One big initiative I’ll be leading is looking at the academic advising model and how we can improve the effectiveness of academic advising,” Curtin said.
During this research, Curtin wants to continue to learn about all that she can do because her time has just begun. She realizes that there is a lot more to learn from this semester and all future semesters as Interim Provost.
“I am just really excited for this role,” Curtin said.
