Ohio University Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit says she looks at challenges realistically, but tries to find ways to make them opportunities.
Benoit calls herself an “optimistic realist,” and says SIUC has lots of areas where she hopes to build on a solid foundation.
One of the challenges she’s worked on in Ohio, and hopes to tackle in Carbondale, is enrollment and retention. Benoit says it boils down to student success – and that’s a big job.
“Every single person who works at the university should think about Student Success being a part of that job. Every single person. Because it is – they all impact whether or not students have a good experience at the university.”
Benoit also says SIUC’s strategic plan could use some streamlining.
"My first job would be to try to have a discussion on campus to try to figure out – going forward – what are the most important priorities for the campus. Because you can’t do everything – especially in a constrained environment – you can’t do everything. So what are the most important things to the campus going forward? How do you focus on the things that are most critical?"
She says difficult choices must be made because of the national and state higher education climate, but those decisions should be made in the open with lots of input – not behind closed doors.
Benoit is the third of four finalists to visit SIU. The final candidate forum is later this week.
