Washington State University Provost and Executive Vice President Robert C. Bates has announced the appointment of Mary F. Wack, dean of the University Honors College, to the position of vice provost for undergraduate education.
“We are very fortunate to have such a respected and dynamic individual as Mary Wack to provide the strong leadership that is necessary for this large and multi-faceted effort,” Bates said. “I am inspired by Mary’s strong vision for sustaining and improving the academic lives of our undergraduate students. She is committed to quality, and champions both vision and efforts to offer undergraduates an exceptional education at a research university.”
Wack is the first person to hold the post of vice provost for undergraduate education at WSU. She has been interim director for undergraduate education since 2005 while serving as dean of Honors. This position reinforces the university’s commitment to a baccalaureate program of quality, a commitment reaffirmed by WSU President Elson S. Floyd.
“I am honored to serve the students and the university community in this new role,” Wack said. “It’s an exciting time at WSU. We have the opportunity to determine how the baccalaureate degree will be reconceptualized within a global context and also how the undergraduate student experienceespecially in the first two yearswill be revitalized.”
Bates said that the vice provost will provide coordinated administrative attention to undergraduate education. He said Wack will have responsibility as spokesperson for the academic welfare of undergraduate students, a source of expertise in undergraduate education, and a coordinator of the “many university agencies and individuals who will of necessity be part of this effort.”
Wack said she anticipates the role will provide also a bridge between student and academic affairs, partnerships with the academic colleges, and leadership to the academic and service units of the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE). They include: the Honors College, General Education, Undergraduate Research, Learning Communities (including its Freshman Focus living-learning community program), Writing Programs, and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. She also serves on the university’s Accreditation Steering Committee, which collects and summarizes institution-wide evidence for WSU’s effectiveness, quality and impact.
During her tenure as Honors dean, Wack raised admissions standards and diversified the student body while solving budget challenges; tripled the number of need-based and merit scholarships; strengthened undergraduate research and scholarship; acquired new endowments for faculty support; and increased the number of Honors students participating in study abroad opportunities.
The OUE, under her leadership, has created new mechanisms to support and improve the quality of the undergraduate academic experience. They include new academic transition experiences such as freshman Convocation and the Common Reading program; a large-scale living-learning community, Freshman Focus; a new undergraduate research office; and development and communications units. Growing out of strategic implementation efforts in 2003, she has supported making teaching and learning more effective through a grants program.
With Wack’s appointment as vice provost, Elizabeth Walker has been named interim dean of the Honors College. A national search will be conducted for a new dean during the coming year.
Wack came to WSU in 1993 as professor and chair of the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts. In 1996, she led the development of the new Center for Teaching and Learning, where she was senior fellow and director. In 2000, she was named dean of the WSU Honors College.
Before coming to WSU, Wack was a professor of English at Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. and master’s degree in medieval literature at Cornell University, and her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in English and Classics at Georgetown University.
