In lieu of Provost Virinder Moudgil’s departure from Oakland University, a national search will be conducted in order to choose the next best candidate. In the meantime, Interim Provost Susan Awbrey will serve in his place.

“Dr. Awbrey was suggested by many with whom I consulted as an excellent candidate for the interim provost position,” Gary Russi, OU president, said.  “She has served Oakland University for years in many key academic and administrative positions.  I’m confident she’ll do a great job in the coming months.”

Awbrey has been an administrator at OU for 21 years. Prior to working at OU, she worked at the University of Illinois, Michigan State University and the University of Texas, where she was a faculty member and administrator.

In selecting Awbrey, Russi drew on members of the OU community.

“The process to select an interim senior vice president and provost involved soliciting suggestions from faculty and consulting with OU’s Distinguished Faculty on the selection criteria and the process for a national search,” Russi said.

Temporary provosts may be titled as either ‘acting’ or ‘interim.’ Acting provosts are often those who have already retired from education administration and are ineligible to apply for the permanent position.  As an interim provost, Awbrey will have the opportunity to apply for the permanent provost title at the end of the 2012-13 school year.

“As to whether or not I’d be interested, ask me again in six months,” she said. “I’m very interested in helping to bring change to Oakland and to improve what we are doing.”

Much like the search for an interim provost, the search for a permanent provost will be national and will include collaboration with OU faculty.

Awbrey has worked within the provost’s office for more than 15 years.  Before her work as a senior assistant provost, in which she oversaw programs such as the Honors College, the bachelor of integrative studies and international education, she oversaw the graduate studies department.

She believes her new position can be compared to her previous work as the senior associate provost.

“The similarities I think are that (the interim provost) is a position that really is aimed at oversight of academics,” she said. “My biggest priority is supporting quality academic experience, and that includes excellence in instruction, research, and in service opportunities, and so it is very similar in that way. And the differences, of course, are that at this point the academic units, the deans, report to the provost.”

Although she has only held her position for about four weeks, Awbrey knows what she would like to accomplish in her new position.

“One of the things that I really want to work on is creating the best experience we possibly can for our students and making sure that we have quality academic programs,” she said. “Those will be my priorities.”

Contact Senior Reporter Sarah Hunton via email at [email protected]