Profile: Anthony J. Perzigian

UC's new senior vice president and provost for baccalaureate and graduate education, Anthony J. Perzigian, is a familiar face on the UC campus. He has served in a variety of academic and administrative roles since 1970. However, his appointment as provost presents new challenges and opportunities. He talks about them in this week's profile.

Q. You've served in the provost's position twice in an acting role and have accepted many other interim appointments at UC. How do you see that experience benefiting you in your new permanent appointment?

A. I have had the good fortune of twice serving as interim Provost. Through these two tours of duty, I have gained considerable familiarity with the breadth and quality of UC's academic programs. With that familiarity has come a deeper appreciation of the diverse and truly prodigious mission of the university along with a keen understanding of its untapped potential. My prime responsibility as provost is to assist faculty and students in achieving their full potential as learners, scholars and servants to society. The high level of preparedness resulting from my previous experience translates into a high level of expectation of me.

Q. What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities now that the word "acting" and "interim" are out of your title?

A. For me, the challenges are no different now that "interim" has been dropped from the title, but the position now provides me an opportunity to confront those challenges more resourcefully. The enormous range of programs and activities under the office of the West Campus Provost demands careful attention to each and to their inter-relationships and synergies. Despite the complexity and diversity of units and missions, there is one simple common denominator or objective: excellence. As a public university, we have a special obligation to those who support and fund our work. That obligation, or call it a challenge, is to contribute continually to the public good through excellence in learning, scholarship and service.

Q. Your work in the Provost's office has covered such areas as the NCA Reaccreditation report, the Collaboration for Student Success, and General Education. In short, you've had a very closeup view of key UC programs and initiatives. Where do you see UC headed, and what areas do you see as most critical in getting the university where it needs to be?

A. I applied for the provost position, because my crystal ball revealed an even greater university one that attracts and retains outstanding faculty, one that provides students continuously assessed, improved and accessible academic programs, one that attracts higher levels of external support, and one that attracts and earns national attention as a place where diversity, opportunity, civility, service and academic excellence abound and shape the campus culture.

I will dedicate myself to enhancing and solidifying UC's position as a major research university. The production, the application and the transmission of knowledge are fundamental to our mission of service to society. We must take a hard look at our programs and effectively redirect resources to those areas demonstrating the highest potential for improving and understanding the human condition and the highest potential for national prominence.

Fundamental to realizing the academic goals of our institution must be a continual effort to enhancing the teaching and learning environment. This means that students' needs and success must govern and dictate all of our decisions and actions. It begins with hiring the best faculty and providing them the wherewithal and rewards for effective teaching. It means maximizing the use of technology to facilitate learning and to reach new markets through distance education. It means cultivating a campus attitude or disposition toward service to students. It means combining majors programs that equip students for productive careers with a general education program that instills skills and motivation for lifelong learning and active civic engagement.

None of this will be possible without heightened enrollment stability, heightened use of technology, heightened funding support, heightened fiscal stability, heightened accountability of persons and programs, and heightened intolerance of mediocrity.

Q. If "All Dreams are Welcome Here," talk about your biggest dream for UC.

A. In the context of the "All Dreams" slogan, my biggest dream is to provide my successor an enviable situation...so enviable that he or she will work to maintain our upward spiral to excellence. I dream that the individual will find UC ranking among the very best and most influential institutions of higher education. That individual, I dream, will be attracted to a world-class university whose outreach and impact through learning, scholarship, creative endeavors and service are truly global. That individual, I dream, will find a university continuously assessing and confirming its effectiveness, continuously serving the public good, and continuously serving as place of opportunity, creativity and intellectual fulfillment.

Q. In spite of your many years and many roles at UC, what do you think people should know about you that's not generally known?

A. I am not sure what secrets to reveal. Through my various roles, the campus community has had a chance to assess my capabilities and potential to serve as an effective Provost. It should be no secret that I am positively thrilled to have the support of President Steger, the Board of Trustees, the faculty and staff who offered their congratulations, and my family. That support is my source of confidence. I ask that we work constructively and collaboratively to make UC a better place where everyone's potential and dreams can be realized, where only the highest personal and academic standards are expected, and where accountability and civility constitute the social fabric.