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Veteran professor, administrator named provost

June 23, 2004

KALAMAZOO--Dr. Linda M. Delene, Western Michigan University vice provost and associate vice president for academic planning and assessment, will step up to the position of provost at WMU, replacing Dr. Daniel M. Litynski, who announced his return to the faculty late last month.

Delene's two-year appointment as provost and vice president for academic affairs, is effective July 1. It will be brought to the WMU Board of Trustees for approval at its June 30 meeting.

"Dr. Delene's long history on the faculty, her deep involvement with University governance, the incredible breadth of her experience in planning and her absolute dedication to academic quality make her an ideal choice to lead our academic enterprise over the next two years," said WMU President Judith I. Bailey in announcing the decision. "I've spent the past two weeks talking with more than 100 faculty and staff members about this appointment and the challenges the new provost will face. I'm convinced Dr. Delene is the right person to take on this important role."

Delene is a veteran researcher and a tenured professor of marketing. The award-winning educator has taught on the main campus and at five of the University's branch campuses, directed nearly a score of student research projects, served on senior thesis and doctoral committees and led dozens of campus committees. Her most recent role as the University's vice provost, has included responsibility for academic program planning and assessment, institutional and program accreditation, implementation of an instructor and course evaluation system and implementation of a new Student Information System.

As provost, Delene says she expects her focus to be on what she calls the fundamentals--academic quality, research productivity, and overall effectiveness and efficiency. The linkage between student needs and system capacity will get particular attention, and the work already under way to assess program quality and student learning will continue to have her support and attention.

"Everything we do has to have excellence at the operational level, whether its scheduling class sections, providing services to students and faculty, or leveraging the resources that support the work of the academy," she says. "Effectiveness and efficiency within the University are going to be more important than ever before."

To ensure continuity and continued leadership of the University's accreditation and academic assessment initiatives after Delene moves into the provost position, Dr. Eileen B. Evans, currently associate vice president for research, will transition over the summer to Delene's prior position, which has been renamed vice provost for institutional effectiveness. That transition should be completed by the start of the fall semester.

Delene first came to WMU in 1977 as an associate professor of marketing after holding administrative planning and research positions or faculty positions at Kalamazoo College, Michigan State University, Oberlin College, Marygrove College and the University of Michigan. She also worked for the U.S. National Security Agency, serving for four years in Washington, D.C., and Tokyo.

The author or co-author of more than 75 professional journal articles and conference presentations, Delene also has been the principal investigator on a number of major funded research projects, most focusing on service quality and health care delivery. She also has conduced seminars around the nation on topics that range from health care marketing to Total Quality Management. She currently is a member of the Editorial Review board of the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education.

A longtime member of the American Association of University Professors, Delene has twice served on an AAUP contract negotiation team. She is a past president of WMU's Faculty Senate and has served on or led dozens of campuswide committees. In 2001, she led a Universitywide committee charged with revising WMU's mission statement.

Delene won WMU's Alumni Teaching Excellence Award in 1978, and in 1988, she was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award by the Michigan Association of Governing Boards.

She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1964, an MBA in management from the University of Hawaii in 1968 and a doctoral degree in higher education administration from the University of Toledo in 1974.

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 269 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu

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