Provost Sol Gittleman is well-known around campus. Some students know of his famed Yiddish culture class, others have heard him at speeches, and many others just recognize his name. Gittleman plans to step down from the position he has held for 21 years, provoking a nationwide search for his replacement. But ultimately the question arises, what does a provost do anyways? And why should undergraduates care? The answer is not simple and as Gittleman explained to the Daily, neither is the University.
The provost's position is a fairly recent one in Tufts history. It was created 50 years ago when the University became too complex for the president to have to deal with both its internal and external activities.
Gittleman estimated that out of the 4,000 universities in the country, there are only 500 provost positions. But as President Bacow said, there is a position comparable to the provost at almost every major research university.
The provost deals with the University as a whole, meaning not only the undergraduate school, but also the seven other graduate schools. Gittleman coordinates with the deans of the seven schools to help institute or to "create and lead" policies with them. The deans of all seven graduate schools report to him.
"I hire and fire [and write] performance reviews for the deans," Gittleman said. He evaluates the deans and helps them with their duties but is not in control of the hiring of individual professors. Gittleman remarked that students come up to him with requests for the curriculum but that making those changes is not his job. Instead, it is up to the deans to spend the money allotted to their specific schools and programs.
In addition to the seven deans, there are also associate and assistant provosts who work with Gittleman. There are two associate provosts for academic affairs, Mary Lee and Ioannis Miaoulis, and one for research, Peggy Newell, while assistant provost Elizabeth Canny helps with the administrative aspect of Gittleman's job.
Gittleman emphasized that the university is "decentralized." Part of his job is to prevent the university from becoming a "silo," where one school has nothing to do with the other schools. At other universities, for example, undergrads are not allowed to use graduate school libraries and graduate students aren't allowed to use undergraduate exercise facilities. But this is not the case at Tufts, where Gittleman works to "keep the hurdles low and the walls thin."
"The whole has to be greater than the individual parts," Gittleman said.
In the same vein, Gittleman tries to keep the faculty's research agendas from becoming isolated.
"We have to keep all the scientists, nutritionists, [everyone] working together across schools," Gittleman said. He coordinates and leads policies with all the schools as well as with individual deans.
While several members of the administration report to Gittleman, the provost only reports to one person: President Bacow. And because the president and the provost work together so closely, Gittleman said that it is up to the president to determine what qualities a provost should have.
"The provost serves the pleasure of the president. Whatever the president wants in the provost [are the qualities a provost should have]," Gittleman said.
Bacow defines the role of a provost for most universities as "the chief academic officer with day-to-day responsibility for leading the academic, as opposed to administrative side, of the University."
As the leader of the academic component of the University, Bacow notes the importance of a provost's intellect and ability to manage.
"A good provost must command the intellectual respect of the faculty," Bacow said. "He or she must also be a strong administrator who understands how disciplines, fields, and higher education are evolving."
In addition to administrative qualities, Bacow also feels that there are some specific personal traits that a provost should have as well.
"The provost must be intellectually curious, well-rounded, and well-read," Bacow said. "A sense of humor is also essential."
Gittleman is the University's sixth provost and its first humanist. The previous provost was a retired dean of the dental school, and his predecessor was a physicist. According to Gittleman, the position has been very meaningful; through it, he has delved into the intricacies that make up this University.
"Tufts is a very complex place for a place that's small," Gittleman said. "There are lots of different issues and different needs, and they all need the same thing: money."
Involved with the University since 1964, Gittleman described Tufts as having made "enormous strides in everything." Since undergraduates are only here for four years, they "only get a snapshot" of the entire University, he said. And while Tufts' undergraduate school is, as Gittleman put it, the "heart and soul" of the University, there are other parts of the school of which most undergraduates aren't aware.
Gittleman acts as a mediator between the undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences and the graduate schools, and he says the two levels are very different. One basic difference is the students themselves, Gittleman said. "Professional students," as Gittleman called them, have a far different perspective on education than undergraduates because most of them have had work experience.
"Their seriousness comes from wanting to be a professional in their field, and they've chosen to come to Tufts," Gittleman said. "They're on the stage of getting on with their lives." He adds that the average Tufts graduate student is 28 years old.
It is the management of all schools of the university that make a small school like Tufts multifaceted, and the position of provost complicated. But who can best describe this school than its provost, who sees the whole and all of its parts?
"What is the University? The undergrads are the most important part, but there is a complexity to Tufts that people don't understand," Gittleman said.
Gittleman emphasizes that graduate students are an integral part of the University, despite the fact that they may not be as visible on campus as undergraduates.
"[They are] people of a different age being taught by people with a different agenda," Gittleman said.
The new provost will continue to work with each of the schools in the same way Gittleman has, but not quite in the same manner.
"Each person will do it a different way," Gittleman said.
The president echoed Gittleman's sentiment that University officials' roles are molded by the people taking on those roles. Though there may be another provost, there will never be another provost quite like Gittleman.
"Sol is truly one of a kind," Bacow said. "It will be very difficult to fill his shoes. However, each person who performs a job like provost or president tends to remake it in his or her image. I suspect the next provost will do so as well."
