Sternberg takes office as new provost

An orange tie with an image of Pistol Pete's guns blazing is a new addition to Robert Sternberg's wardrobe.

Sternberg's office is still relatively bare because he only began working as the OSU provost Aug. 2, 2010.

"Several things contribute to my desire to come to OSU including my belief in the land-grant mission," Sternberg said. The second reason is because I believe President Hargis is tops as a president."

Provost is also the senior vice president of OSU and serves directly below President Burns Hargis.

"The provost has to believe in the president and I feel President Hargis cares about the university unlike some university presidents who become narcissist," Sternberg said.

Another one of the provost's responsibilities include working with the OSU office of Grants and Contracts and the OSU Foundation to help obtain gifts, grants and contracts for the university, according to the OSU provost search website. He also must be able to maintain good productive relationships with the other OSU campuses as well as coordinate the development of academic budget allocations.

The provost, who is also the Chief Academic Officer, is responsible for assessing OSU academic programs, according to the OSU provost search website.

President Hargis chose from four finalists came to OSU to meet the president, search committee, faculty and student councils. The candidates also gave public presentations for so the university could form their opinions on which candidate it felt was best for the provost position.

The Stillwater campus was then asked to give any feedback on the finalist to President Hargis to consider.

"It's standard procedure for the search committee to give its input to the president but not rank the candidates in any way," Mowen said.

"We were looking for an individual who had an outstanding academic background significant administration experience and who could creatively move OSU forward," said John Mowen, the chairman of the provost search and screen committee.

"In my personal opinion, we found what we were looking for in Bob Sternberg."

The search committee consisted of 16 members from different areas of the university. "Our goal was to have every major constituency represented," Mowen said.

The committee had representatives from the graduate, undergraduate, staff, each college, the faculty council, student council, deans, associate deans and minority groups. Several of the members were voices for more than one group.

The committee's process of selecting the next provost was conducted through a series of eliminations.

Two months of the position publicized in various education magazines including the Chronicles of Higher Education gave the committee more than 60 applications to sort through.

The committee then picked 15 quarter finalists that demonstrated the academic and administrative qualities it was looking for. The quarter finalists were asked for letters of recommendation that the committee would consider before it narrowed the candidates to seven.

The committee interviewed the seven candidates via Skype before choosing the four finalists.