Provost Scott Coltrane has announced a series of new positions dedicated to undergraduate student success, excellence and timely graduation.
Lisa Freinkel has been promoted to vice provost and dean for undergraduate studies. Doneka Scott has been hired as the new associate vice provost for student success. Ron Bramhall will be moving into the new position of associate vice provost for academic excellence.
Coltrane shared the details about the new positions and investments in a message to campus:
Dear Colleagues,
Last November, President Michael Schill set an aggressive goal to increase four-year graduation rates by ten percentage points over the next five years. At the time of the announcement, we knew it would take dedication, additional staff, and financial resources to achieve this ambitious goal. We made an investment of $17 million over the next five years to support scholarships, advising, graduation assistance, and predictive analytics. Today, I’m pleased to share with you some personnel news tied to this initiative.
Many of the student success efforts connected with this goal are being led by Lisa Freinkel, our vice provost for undergraduate studies. In recognition of the importance of undergraduate studies on our campus and Lisa’s leadership in advancing student excellence and success, I’m pleased to announce that her position is being elevated to vice provost and dean for undergraduate studies. Serving an undergraduate student body of 21,000 students, the Division of Undergraduate Studies promotes academic excellence, engagement, access, and student success, and is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive learning and working environment. UGS is comprised of four units:
- The Accessible Education Center
- Office of Academic Advising
- Teaching and Learning Center
- Office of the Vice Provost, which includes the Freshman Interest Group (FIG) program and the new center for undergraduate research and distinguished scholarships
Lisa is an associate professor of English and comparative literature; researches mindfulness, poetics, Shakespeare, and digital culture; and is an award winning teacher. She was chair and director of graduate studies of the Comparative Literature Department for nine years, and has been directing general education and student success initiatives at the UO since 2013.
I am also thrilled to share with you that we have selected Doneka Scott as associate vice provost for student success. Doneka will start at the UO on August 1. She will report to both Lisa and to me, and work closely with others across campus—including Institutional Research, Enrollment Management, Student Life, Equity and Inclusion, and all of the schools and colleges—to develop and implement strategies around advising and other student services. A critical component will be overseeing the implementation and leveraging of the campus’s primary student success tool, EAB’s Student Success Collaborative Campus.
Doneka comes to us from the University of Minnesota, where she serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems in the College of Pharmacy. With a background in access and retention initiatives, her administrative career has straddled both faculty and administrative roles. She has been first or second author on nine papers—spanning topics from toxicology to student development—as she completed her second advanced degree, a master’s degree in higher and post-secondary education.
Over the past five years, Doneka’s administrative roles have brought her increasingly into relationship with the seven colleges at Minnesota that admit and graduate freshman—including their College of Liberal Arts. Her current position as special assistant to the vice provost and dean for undergraduate education includes a portfolio of retention responsibilities including implementation of Minnesota’s pilot of the Student Success Collaborative—the same advising and predictive analytics platform that we are currently launching here at the University of Oregon.
In addition to her experience in student development and student success, Doneka brings a background in equity and diversity work, and in community-based training that investigates the role of practitioner implicit bias in community health outcomes.
Finally, we are also excited to announce that Ron Bramhall, our current assistant vice provost of academic affairs, will move into the new position of associate vice provost for academic excellence, effective July 1.
Over the course of this year, it has become increasingly clear that achieving our student success goals will require significant work at the curricular level in departments, schools, and colleges. We'll need to find ways to eliminate course roadblocks and bottlenecks, and revise counterproductive academic policies. This may include major curricular reform in our baccalaureate requirements. One important piece of that reform—especially in light of the work of the Black Student Task Force—is tied to changing our multicultural studies graduation requirement.
Ron is absolutely the right person to take on these challenges. He has been working with faculty, department heads, and deans to facilitate curricular proposals to approval and review unit policies for compliance with the collective bargaining agreement. He also collaborates with faculty and administration to develop and implement academic policies and coordinate university assessment efforts related to accreditation.
Ron has been with UO since 2001 and has been an instructor in the Lundquist College of Business since 2003. He also served as the director of the honors program in the college, as well as a leader within United Academics, our faculty bargaining unit.
This team will be key to enhancing student success across the university and I have great confidence they are up to the challenge. Please join me in congratulating Lisa Freinkel, Doneka Scott, and Ron Bramhall on their new positions.
Sincerely,
Scott Coltrane
Provost and Senior Vice President