Newman University officials announced that Michael Austin, Ph.D. has been named the new provost and vice president for academic affairs. Austin was selected from among several candidates in a search to fill the position after Newman’s current provost and vice president for academic affairs, B. Lee Cooper, Ph.D., announced that he would resign in March 2008. Austin will officially begin his duties June 1, 2008. Austin is currently dean of graduate studies at Shepherd University. He began working at the institution as assistant professor of English in 1997 when Shepherd University was then Shepherd College. Shepherd is a public institution of 4,000 students and 130 full-time faculty members located in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Austin earned his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara and his bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Brigham Young University. During his tenure at Shepherd, Austin has served several roles, including chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages, and Interim Director of Graduate Programs. After his first three years at Shepherd he was elected to serve as the chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages, the largest academic unit on campus with 10 full-time and 25 part-time faculty members. With a directive from the State in the spring of 2004, Shepherd College became Shepherd University and Austin was asked by the Vice President for Academic Affairs to become the Interim Director of Graduate Programs and to oversee transition to university status. At the end of the school year he was named Shepherd's first Dean of Graduate Studies. As a dean he served three years on the Deans/VPAA's Council overseeing all academic policies. Austin has written books including A Voice in the Wilderness: Conversations with Terry Tempest Williams, a collection of interviews with "one of America's most self-consciously spiritual nature writers," Austin described. His second book was published by WW Norton and is used in more than 75 colleges and universities. It analyzes issues in history by bringing together readings from the Judeo-Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian perspectives. His most recent textbook, Reading the World: Ideas that Matter, is full of "readings that I felt were so important for students to read" he said, including John Henry Cardinal Newman’s "The Idea of a University".

Posted on Friday, December 19, 2008 (Archive on Tuesday, January 01, 2008) Posted by admin_schneiderl  Contributed by admin_schneiderl

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