Southern Illinois University Carbondale is under new leadership.
In a short meeting Tuesday afternoon on the SIUC campus, Trustees appointed 54-year old Paul Sarvela as SIU Carbondale's acting chancellor. Sarvela has been with SIU for 28 years. He comes to the post from Vice President of Academic Affairs for the SIU system. He says his top priority is to provide quality education for students and to work on recruitment and retention. Sarvela also says he will take a look at a number of campus policies including those pertaining to research. Sarvela says he'd like to see if there's a way to make it easier for faculty to get grants.
Sarvela replaces outgoing chancellor Rita Cheng. She was recently named President of Northern Arizona University. Sarvela's appointment is open ended. He is also eligible to be a candidate for the permanent position. SIU President Randy Dunn says he anticipates Sarvela will be in the interim post for at least a year.
