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UT gets new provost

By Times Staff Writer
Published March 11, 2006

TAMPA - The University of Tampa has chosen a former English professor and longtime university administrator to be its first new provost in 14 years.

Dr. Janet McNew, provost and dean of faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University, will become UT's provost and vice president for academic affairs in July.

McNew, 54, comes to the private college of 5,100 students at a time when it is reorganizing to deal with student growth.

"The university is just so dynamic," said McNew, who was an English professor at Saint John's University in Minnesota before she took the provost job at Wesleyan 13 years ago.

"It's clearly on the move and just has so much opportunity."

A search committee headed by former interim provost David Ford, a chemistry professor at UT, chose McNew. Ford said McNew, with her experience as both a faculty member and administrator, was "the clear choice."

Grant Donaldson, university spokesman, said the provost position has not been filled since the early 1990s, when the college handed provost duties over to the deans of the colleges of liberal arts and sciences and business.

But with the student population having doubled in the past 11 years, UT officials began a reorganization that included filling the provost position.

McNew, who grew up in the Atlanta area, said she has been to Florida many times as a tourist.

Within the next few weeks, she will come to town as a newly employed Floridian in search of a house.

[Last modified March 11, 2006, 01:42:13]