Ken Borland is the new senior vice president of academic affairs and provost at the University.
With a $240,000 annual salary, Borland officially started on Aug. 15 and is in charge of academic programs, including managing the different colleges. He said his job will consist of trust, transparency and communication.
Borland emphasized how important it is for a person of his position to interact with students and faculty and making sure they have the resources to be successful.
‘It is important for the provost to gather perspective for a university,’ Borland said.
He said once he knows what faculty and students are thinking, then he can move on to address their visions as well as obstacles and challenges.
‘Coming to Bowling Green was an easy decision to me,’ he said. ‘It was time to help other folks.’
Borland began his career at Montana State University as a professor, then assistant vice provost for academic affairs.
After moving in 2001 to East Stroudsburg University in Pa., Borland was the associate provost, and then provost and vice president for academic affairs for the past eight years.
Robert Dillman, the president of ESU, said one of Borland’s major accomplishments at ESU was reorganizing the school into colleges. Prior to the restructuring, the university was separated into academic divisions.
‘He was able to realign management and business in one college,’ Dillman said.
But Borland said he is here to focus on the University and not his past accomplishments.
‘The goal is not to replicate my experience at Bowling Green. The goal is to make Bowling Green State University the best it can be,’ Borland said. ‘Every university in the country, whether they want to admit it or not, is dealing with financial issues.’
He said one of the keys to overcoming some of these challenges is to have good communication between all components of the University.
Borland said he plans to visit Firelands and start establishing relationships there as well.
He also said there’s an interest in balancing undergraduate and graduate education on campus.
‘You have to have trust, you have to have transparency, you have to have a willingness to listen,’ Borland said. ‘There are a lot of exciting, important projects that need to be taken care of all at once.’
Undergraduate President Sundeep Mutgi was part of the search committee in charge of finding candidates for a new provost, and he said he liked Borland during the interview process.
‘I liked how student-centered he was,’ he said.
The committee included Mutgi and representatives from faculty, classified staff and students. They talked about what they wanted in a provost, and the qualifications they came up with included someone who was once a professor and who worked as a dean or higher.
Mutgi said the committee narrowed the candidates down to five and University President Carol Cartwright made the final decision.
But the committee had their top two candidates, and Mutgi said Borland was one of them.
‘I’m not going to make a projection and say he’s going to be the best provost we’ve ever had,’ Mutgi said.
But he said he did think Borland could bring good changes to the University.
‘People are ready for change,’ Mutgi said.’
