2nd candidate for vice provost of Undergraduate Studies to present Monday

LAWRENCE — Ruth Ann Atchley, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Kansas, will make a public presentation Monday, Oct. 5, as a candidate for vice provost of Undergraduate Studies.

Atchley is the second of three candidates for the position who will make public presentations during their respective campus visits. Her talk will be from 4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union.

Atchley earned her doctorate in psychology from the University of California-Riverside in 1997 and has been on the faculty at KU since 1998. She became chair of the psychology department in 2009. The department has 38 faculty members at 29 FTE and nearly 1,000 students, making it the fourth most popular undergraduate major at KU. During her time at KU, Atchley has held a number of leadership roles and been involved in a variety of committees. She was on the executive committee of University Senate from 2004 to 2007 and also served as president of Faculty Senate during 2006-07. Her varied university service reflects involvement in the student experience. She currently is a member of the Student Housing Advisory Board, the Undergraduate Thesis Work Group of the Center for Undergraduate Research and the First-Year Experience Seminar Committee. In 2013, she chaired the Provost’s Task Force for Course Redesign, and from 2011 to 2015 she was a member of the KU Memorial Union Board of Directors. She was a Senior Administrative Fellow in 2010-11.

The vice provost search committee, led by Tom Volek, associate professor and associate dean of journalism and mass communications, invites students, faculty and staff to attend all candidate presentations and provide feedback of their impressions. Each candidate will prepare a presentation on the topic: What are the three biggest challenges to student academic success that public research universities face? How do you propose to engage academic units and academic support services in efforts to improve graduation rates? The university will release information about each candidate roughly 48 hours before his or her talk. The final candidate is scheduled for :

• Candidate 3 presentation: 4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 7, Malott Room, Kansas Union

Candidate presentations will be recorded and available for viewing online after the final candidate has appeared on campus. Evaluations of all candidates are due by noon, Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The vice provost of Undergraduate Studies has primary focus on undergraduate education at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. The vice provost has responsibility for retention and progression to graduation for undergraduate students and works with the leadership in Undergraduate Studies to implement retention efforts in collaboration with stakeholders across the campus. The vice provost works with the University Core Curriculum Committee to set the agenda and to ensure processes are developed for managing the KU Core, and provides leadership for several offices on campus including experiential learning, First-Year Experience, the Center for Undergraduate Research and the academic support services, including the Undergraduate Advising Center, the Academic Achievement and Access Center, the KU Writing Center, the University Career Center and KU Info.