Diane Miller, vice provost for Academic Affairs, will take on the additional role of interim provost on May 11 due to Kaylene Gebert's decision to step down and become a full-time professor.
"I'm honored to accept President [Sidney] McPhee's invitation to serve MTSU as the interim provost and appreciate his confidence in my ability to take on this responsibility," Miller said. "I appreciate the leadership Gebert has provided Academic Affairs for the past six years and wish her continued success and happiness in her role as a member of the faculty."
Miller will serve as interim until a permanent replacement is found, McPhee said.
"We will start in the fall and do some interviewing of candidates," McPhee said. "I will put together a university committee to review those candidates for me and make some recommendations with regards to the candidates."
McPhee said he hopes to have a new provost appointed by spring 2010.
"I have no hesitation or concerns at all that we will attract very strong candidates for this position," McPhee said. "This is a very important position, and it's an excellent university."
Before coming to MTSU, Gebert served as a faculty member at Louisiana State University, provost at the University of North Alabama and worked on both the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Pennsylvania State Regents System of Higher Education.
"I made the decision, and the president agreed with me that it's time for me to take a new role at the university and become a professor," Gebert said. "If you look at my resume, every four or five years I change and do something different."
Gebert said that she loves working as an administrator but misses the joys of teaching students in the classroom. In the fall, she said she would like to teach an introductory speech class in the Department of Speech and Theatre.
Gebert graduated from Hanover College with a double major in English and speech and theater. She said she got her master's degree at Cornell University and attended Indiana University to get her doctorate in historical and contemporary communications.
"I really am looking forward to getting back to the classroom," Gebert said. "If you look at my career, I do something and I really like it, but then I'm looking for the next thing that I can do."
McPhee said there have been significant accomplishments at the university because of Gebert's leadership as chief academic officer.
"Six or seven years ago, we were bringing in more than $6 million in external research grants, [and] today, that [number] is more than $40 million," McPhee said. "Our graduation rate, which directly relates to what happens in the classroom, has gone from ranking No. 3 in the board of regents system to ranking No. 1."
In addition to helping with increasing the graduation rate, Gebert said she is also interested in educating students in the community.
"I brought the American Democracy Project with me when I came," Gebert said. "A number of faculty in their courses bring in ideas and focus on what we call 'civic engagement,' which is focusing on students not only becoming well prepared in their discipline and skill, but also what we are trying to do in higher education is educate citizens."
This year, the ADP held several events, including the reading of the Constitution in the middle of The Quad and trying to get students to register to vote in the 2008 election.
Gebert said that even though she will miss the position of provost, there are perks about having a flexible schedule.
"I have a 7-year-old granddaughter that I don't nearly get to see enough of," Gebert said. "She lives in New Orleans, so I think that's another thing I will be able to do."
McPhee said that a lot of administrators have the same idea as Gebert and return to teaching or retire altogether.
"The job at a university this size is very demanding, and a number of administrators decide over a period of time that they want to slow things down and not continue to grind off a day-to-day administrative position," McPhee said. "I understand her decision to slow down and become part of the faculty."
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