Provost Office

Assumption University is blessed to have a wealth of talented and dedicated faculty who are united in their commitment to the development of academic excellence in our students and our University.   Creating opportunities for faculty to exercise their diverse gifts and abilities effectively on this front is crucial to the success of the University.  The Office of the Provost is therefore pleased to institute the AU Provost Fellows Program.  This program invites qualified, tenured faculty members to make meaningful contributions to the academic excellence of our University by working with the Provost’s Office on targeted, strategic initiatives. Faculty involved in the AU Provost Fellows Program gain experience on the senior administrative level as they work with University officers and departments to achieve the mission-oriented academic goals of Assumption University.

Provost Fellows Responsibilities 

Provost Fellows partner with senior administration on initiatives and projects that are vital to Assumption University’s academic and educational success.  As a Provost Fellow, a tenured faculty member will work on academic initiatives that encompass and span the educational life of the University, implement mission-critical strategic initiatives, learn about budget planning and management, and hone their personal leadership and collaborative skills.

Provost Fellows will receive appropriate release time (course reductions fitting the particular initiative they are working on) and administrative resources as they continue to carry out their primary faculty responsibilities as teachers and researchers. Fellows will meet with the senior administrator directing their project on a biweekly basis and take part in developmental programs specifically designed for Provost Fellows.  Depending on the assigned initiative, a Provost Fellow’s post may run for either a single semester or extend over a full academic year.

2024-2025 Provost’s Fellows

Foundations Provost Fellow

Providing all undergraduates with a rich and common experience of the breadth and depth of Catholic liberal education, the Foundations Program is—and will continue to be—the signature undergraduate, academic program at Assumption University.  Infusing the distinctive aims and ends of this program across the entire landscape of Assumption’s undergraduate programs lies at the heart of AU Thrive.  Reporting directly to the Provost and working closely with the Dean of the D’Amour College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, this Provost Fellow will help develop substantial, innovative initiatives that imbue the Foundations Program throughout the Universities various schools, bringing the program to life beyond its curricular requirements and unifying the essential educational aims that mark an Assumption education.  Duration: Full Academic Year.

Graduate Studies Provost Fellow

The significant and sustained expansion of Assumption’s graduate student enrollments is a crucial objective of AU Thrive.  Such strategic growth will require the careful identification, development, and implementation of a catalogue of new graduate programs that clearly align with the University’s educational mission.  The Graduate Studies Provost Fellow will be responsible for developing an innovative process for soliciting and evaluating ideas for new graduate-level programs and professional education opportunities within the Assumption community.  Reporting directly to the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and working closely with the Chief Marketing Officer, this Provost Fellow will see this initiative from the idea stage through implementation.  Duration of fellowship: Full Academic Year.

Enrollment Management Provost Fellow 

Infusing Assumption’s distinctive educational mission throughout our students’ entire experience—from admission to graduation and beyond—is rightly the first goal of AU Thrive.  The successful achievement of this goal will necessarily require close collaboration between Academic Affairs and Enrollment Management.  Reporting directly to the Vice President of Enrollment and working in close conjunction with the Provost, this Provost Fellow will be responsible for: 1) identifying, developing, and communicating innovative ways for faculty to support and academically enrich enrollment efforts; 2) detecting and operationalizing key predictors of students’ academic success at Assumption; and 3) building opportunities that optimally and prominently showcase distinctive academic programs.  Duration of fellowship: Full Academic Year.

Nomination and Selection Process

Qualifications: Applicants must be tenured faculty members. Prior leadership experience is preferred but not required.

Nominations: A request for nominations for specific Provost Fellow posts is circulated to Deans and Vice Presidents. Deans and Vice Presidents can nominate faculty members by sending a brief description of their qualifications and curriculum vitae to the Office of the Provost. The Provost’s Office will solicit additional required information from the candidate.

Faculty members also can self-nominate for a particular Provost Fellow post. Self-nominations should include a two-page statement summarizing specific academic/administrative interests and professional goals, as well as a current curriculum vita. The Provost’s Office will solicit endorsement of the nomination from the nominee’s Dean.

Academic Year 2024-2025 Application Dates:

Application Process Opens: December 15, 2023

Application Deadline: February 1, 2024.

Proudly sponsored by the Provost’s Office, The Disputed Questions Forum provides a venue for contested intellectual, moral, and spiritual questions to be discussed and debated in a way that honors the distinctive dignity of the human person. Animated by the belief that each person is created in the image of a God who is both logos and love, this forum is based on a simple premise: the highest compliment you can pay a being who is endowed with logos (reason) is to take his or her thoughts, ideas, and reasoned arguments seriously.

This Forum takes its name from an impressive academic exercise that characteristically marked the internal life of medieval Catholic universities.  Regularly, a magister (master) would stand up before the entire university, set forth a brief opening lecture on a controversial topic, and respond to objections and counter arguments proffered by other masters, bachelors, and students.

The Forum brings the entire Assumption community together to listen to—not just hear—diverse thinkers debate timely all-too-human questions and concerns.  Today, most universities reflexively blink when confronted with the opportunity to discuss hotly debated contemporary concerns in a respectful, civil, and serious way.  We are fortunate to be members of an ennobling educational community that can—and does—do this with intellectual courage, intellectual generosity, and intellectual humility.  

At Assumption, this is what genuine civil discourse looks like.  The Disputed Questions Forum furthers such truly humanizing conversations among the company of friends. View recent Disputed Questions Forum- “Reflection & Judgement: Israel-Hamas War“, “Dobbs and Democracy in America“, and “Academic Freedom: Fact or Useful Fiction?“.

Conversations with AU Authors February 26, 2025

Wednesday, February 26, 2025, Curtis Performance Hall, 5:00pm

Discussant: Dr. Bernard J. Dobski, Professor, Department of Political Science 
Moderator: Dr. Christopher J Gilbert,  Associate Professor, Department of English
Book title: Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc, Political Wisdom, Divine Justice, and the Origins of Modernity.

Sponsored by the Assumption University Office of the Provost.

Conversations with AU Authors: October 23, 2024

Wednesday, October 23, 2024, Curtis Performance Hall, 5:00 PM

Discussant: Dr. Samantha Goldman, Department of Education
Moderator:  Dr. John Bell, Department of History
Book title: Exploring Special Education Advocacy in the United States and Abroad

Sponsored by the Assumption University Office of the Provost.

Conversations with AU Authors: March 14, 2024

Thursday, March 14, 2024, Curtis Performance Hall, 5:00 PM

Discussant: Toby Norris, Ph.D., Department of Art and Music
Book title: Marginal to Mainstream: French Modernism Between the Wars

Sponsored by the Assumption University Office of the Provost.

Conversations with AU Authors: November 29, 2023

Wednesday, November, 29, 2023, Curtis Performance Hall, 5:00 PM

Discussant: Steven Theroux, Ph.D., Department of Biological and Physical Sciences
Book title: A Most Improbable Story: the Evolution of the Universe, Life, and Humankind

Rabbi Joseph Klein Lecture

Assumption University Snow Day Policy  

1. Over the course of one semester, the University officially will cancel scheduled, in-person classes for snow days for up to one week of a course’s regularly scheduled class meetings (e.g., three MWF classes or two TR classes or one once-a-week course’s class). 
2. All courses regularly scheduled to meet exclusively on-line, e.g., a graduate course, will continue to meet online regardless of our Worcester campus being closed for a declared snow day.  
3. If winter weather necessitates the closing of campus for more days than stipulated in point #1, instructors will hold affected classes online.   

Official campus closings due to snow days will be posted on the University’s website and announced by the University via text and phone message.