2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Final chancellor candidate visits campus
Katie Huston, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: News
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It was the advertisement for the position, he said, that attracted him to the job.
"In the first paragraph, it said that the University of Massachusetts Amherst wants to be one of the premier universities in the country," he told students at a meeting yesterday morning. "I want to be at a campus that wants to improve and wants to gain more prominence nationally as a public university."
Since 2006, Holub has been the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Prior to his position in Knoxville, he was the dean of the undergraduate division of the college of letters and sciences at the University of California-Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in German Literature.
Yesterday, Holub spent the day meeting with various stakeholders on campus, including students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni and community leaders.
At an open meeting in the afternoon, he stressed his faith in and commitment to public higher education, highlighting his time in Berkeley and Madison at two of the nation's top public universities.
"We have to get out the message that an investment in public education is an investment in the state," he said.
Development would be an important part of his role on campus, he said, occupying "somewhere north of 30 percent" of his time.
"We have to be more effective in contacting the alumni for the help that is needed. We don't perform as well as other universities that are flagship universities in their state," Holub said.
He also emphasized his faith in using "best practices" to raise the caliber of the University, examining what works at other institutions.
"One of the challenges I've had in Tennessee is an entrenched way of doing things that doesn't look at national standards and best practices," he said. Holub said he doesn't believe in top-down initiatives when it comes to distributing resources.
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