Ioannis Miaoulis, dean of engineering, and Dr. Mary Y. Lee, dean of educational affairs at the medical school, officially assumed the positions of associate provosts on Nov. 1. The two deans fill a vacancy left by former Vice Provost June Aprille, who departed this summer to assume the provost position at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
But Miaoulis and Lee have not abandoned their current duties at the School of Engineering and medical school. Each will assume additional responsibilities that complement their other administrative tasks.
The associate provosts will work mainly with Provost Sol Gittleman on programs to unite areas of Tufts' eight schools, rather than focus on any one particular field. They will report to a new boss next year, with Gittleman set to resign as provost after the spring semester.
The administration hopes that drawing deans from different Tufts schools into the provost's office will form the various schools into a more cohesive unit.
"Right now, it's very difficult to get undergraduates to realize that Tufts is a university," Gittleman said. "Undergraduates form the major part of Tufts, but there is more out there. These positions will cut across the University...They will serve as ropes stretched across abysses."
Along with developing new research and education programs in various areas of the University, Miaoulis will work on projects initiated by Aprille before her departure, such as the Tufts Institute of the Environment, the Africa Forum, the Tufts Institute for Healthy Aging, and the Tufts University Center for Children.
As Dean of Engineering for eight years, Miaoulis worked on several other collaborative projects, such as the establishment of joint degree programs between the School of Engineering and other University faculties.
"Working on collaborations has always been one of my favorite parts of work," he said. "Now I can work on synergies without engineering."
An example of an area in which Mialouis hopes to synergize redundant elements is the curriculum. Similar courses are often offered in different departments, such as the 35 different statistics courses offered throughout Tufts departments. "Due to our decentralized nature, there is quite a bit of duplication of efforts," he said.
Miaoulis is currently evaluating the curricula of such courses and is looking to combine lower-level courses while maintaining specialized upper-level courses.
Gittleman cited the importance of initiatives like these in "convincing people that more is less."
Miaoulis' main project in this area right now is the development of a bioengineering program, drawing upon resources from the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering, the Medical School, and the School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
The new associate provosts are also working with civil engineering professor David Gute to analyze Tufts' role in homeland security in response to the events of Sept. 11.
Lee's responsibilities are more concentrated. She will work on bringing together the health science schools located on each of Tufts' three campuses. She is also continuing her previous work in developing University-wide teaching initiatives.
President Larry Bacow and Gittleman announced the appointments of Miaoulis and Lee as part of a massive administrative restructuring in October, which streamlined Tufts' administrative system. Neither associate provost has a defined team that reports to them. Gittleman calls them "lone rangers" in that they have find different people to work with on each initiative.
