In May, Saint Xavier University’s provost Dr. James MacLaren will be transferring to Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania to become their new president. MacLaren has served as provost for almost two years and helped implement various different programs around campus. He will be missed.
One of the programs he has worked on at SXU is the graduate program. A program that he was not only proud to work on but proud to have worked on it with so many people.
MacLaren mentions, “To have gotten off the ground a new graduate program in medical sciences that started this fall and to see a turnaround in the numbers of graduate students over the last year has been pretty satisfying. So the work we have done to move programs online, configuring graduate programs that meet students needs and starting some turnaround in the number of graduate students after years of decline. Now, the credit for that lands at hard work done by the people over at the program lab. As provost, we kind of oversee that work and I am pleased that has seen some significant progress over the last year.”
Aside from moving many of the graduate programs online, MacLaren’s other accomplishments include working on the undergraduate programs as well. MacLaren mentions these undergraduate changes have included trying to develop a more efficient curriculum to manage resources better, improvements to the business school, and helping the nursing program.
He has also worked hard communicating to professors the importance of helping and supporting students, specifically those in the general education courses. According to MacLaren, he hopes to take the change toward a greater focus on communication between students and professors along with other curriculum changes to general education classes with him when he transfers to Lebanon Valley College.
As mentioned earlier, this is only in the two years that MacLaren has been provost, which he says is relatively short for a provost as the average provost usually serves for four to five years. MacLaren also brought up that in most cases a provost working at a university will think about whether they want to become a president at a different university or do something not as time-consuming and teach.
While being president of a university might be what many provosts want, there are a lot more responsibilities it entails. MacLaren understands that and states, “A president does a lot more external work, so that’s something I did as a dean. I did a lot of fundraising and external work with alumni and friends of the university. I must admit that is an area that I have missed here. I enjoyed that work and there will be more of that as a president and obviously you have a broader range of responsibilities. I oversee the academic programs which is obviously a large part of the university because you come here to study academic programs, but there are areas such as athletics, student affairs, undergraduate admission, and business and finance that report up to a president but [don’t] always report up to a provost.”
This decision does not come without deliberation as MacLaren mentions, “It was a tough decision. I know I’ve only been here a couple of years, but I have enjoyed working with colleagues, faculty, and staff. I’ve not been teaching here like at my prior institutions so I do not know quite the same number of students as I did when I was teaching, but the students I’ve gotten to know I truly have enjoyed getting to know … That makes it tough when you’ve got settled and made connections and they then get broken.”
When asked what he is going to miss the most about SXU and if he had anything he would like to say to SXU students, he said, “I am going to miss colleagues, friends, and students that I have got to know. It’s just been a wonderful two years really. It’s gone by really quickly. I’ll certainly miss that.”
He adds, “For the ones that I have got to know, I really enjoyed learning about your stories, your successes, and just encourage them to stick with their academic programs and focus on a goal of graduating in four years if they can … don’t let that slip and good things will happen.”
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