Third candidate for vice provost of undergraduate studies to present Wednesday

LAWRENCE — Anne Birberick, vice provost of undergraduate academic affairs at Northern Illinois University, will make a public presentation Wednesday, Oct. 7, as a candidate for vice provost of undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas.

Birberick is the final 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. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the Malott Room of the Kansas Union.

Birberick, who has been vice provost since 2011, first joined the NIU faculty in 1992 as an assistant professor of French. As the vice provost she leads efforts to support student success, retention and graduation, and she oversees the undergraduate curriculum and general education program in collaboration with the academic colleges and standing curriculum committees. She supervises 19 offices that report to Undergraduate Academic Affairs. From 2005 to 2010 she served as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and, prior to that, from 2001 to 2005, coordinated the university’s Division of French and Italian. Birberick has been involved in and led a number of committees while at NIU. She has written several chapters and articles as well as the book “Reading Undercover: Audience and Authority in Jean de La Fontaine.” She earned a doctorate in French from the University of Virginia in 1991.

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? 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.