WSU Provost forum #1, 12:10 p.m., West 260

Via AMS from WSU Pullman

WSU selects two finalists for provost and executive vice president position

The committee charged with naming a new provost and executive vice president for Washington State University has selected two finalists for the post and both candidates will be on campus next week to conduct interviews and meet with students, faculty and staff.

The two finalists are A. Dale Whittaker, vice provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs and acting vice president for Student Affairs at Purdue University, and Daniel J. Bernardo, the current interim provost and executive vice president at WSU.

Whittaker joined the faculty of Purdue University as a professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in 2002 after serving during the previous 8 years as a visiting scientist at the McCaulay Land Use Research Institute, in Aberdeen, UK, and then as visiting professor with the Institut Supérieur d’Agriculture de Lille, in Lille, France. He also served as both an assistant and associate professor of Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University between 1987 and 1999.

“I have a deep appreciation for a culture of excellence in higher education,” Whittaker wrote in his initial letter to the search committee members. “I am committed to both university tradition and transformative change, and would like to bring my strengths in successful collaboration, non-traditional thinking and responsible budget stewardship to Washington State University.”

Bernardo, former dean of the WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences and WSU vice president for Agriculture and Extension, has served as WSU provost and executive vice president on an interim basis since June of last year. He earned his doctoral degree in Agricultural Economics from WSU before joining the faculty of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University. He later served as professor and department head with the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University before returning to WSU in 2005.

“Our land–grant mission of access and service to the state is more relevant today, than it has been in several decades,” Bernardo wrote in his letter to the search committee. “The key to our future success is to embrace this mandate and accelerate the pace of change, as opposed to slipping back into the ‘comfort zone’ of the past.”

In addition to interviewing with deans, vice provosts, and other campus leadership, as well as members of the WSU faculty, both candidates will be available to meet with students, faculty and staff next week during open forums which will be held in the CUB auditorium on the Pullman campus. The forums will also be accessible via videoconference at all WSU regional campuses and research stations. The Whittaker open forum will be held from 12:10 to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, while the Bernardo open forum is scheduled from 12:10 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 24.

More information about the candidates and videoconference locations at WSU’s regional campuses and research stations is available on the Provost Search website at provostsearch.wsu.edu.