After six years as provost, John Folkins decided it was time for a change.

In May 2000 Folkins came to the University to serve as provost for academic affairs. He now sits as the CEO of the research institute on campus.

“It was a great opportunity to change departments and I’m looking foreword to the challenge,” Folkins said.

As provost, Folkins was the vice president for the academic side of the university. Eight deans, student academic services and admissions reported to him.

Even though Folkins has left the provosts office, Alberto Gonzalez, vice president for Academic Services, said they are making sure they continue on with the approach to admissions and new student recruitment as they were before.

“I worked with Folkins since he has been here and he offered tremendous support to Academic Service areas and I appreciated that,” Gonzalez said.

Interim Provost for Academic Affairs, Mark Gromko, had worked as Vice Provost for nine years so the transition was easy to interim, he said.

“We will continue working on existing projects and prepare the office so it’s in good shape to hand off to a new provost,” Gromko said.

As CEO of the research institute Folkins is helping students, faculty and staff of the University hook up with companies that will help them out if they have a new invention or idea.

“The faculty is busy teaching so they don’t have the time to do the marketing themselves, its benefiting the faculty and public and its advertising for new products,” Folkins said.

The provost office is currently working on testing a new form of student evaluations for teachers, Gromko said.

“The new form has advantages directed towards students own learning, and it corrects known bias,” he said.

It was a good decision to transfer, I can do all different things, and it’s an all new challenge, Folkins said.

“I hold [Folkins] in high regard and appreciate the hard work he did for the office and the university,” Gromko said.