University names Provost
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:27 p.m., May 16, 2008
Updated 01:27 p.m., May 16, 2008
For a new administrative job, Emporia State University chose not only a familiar face, but a popular one.
The university announced today that it had named Tes Mehring, dean of ESU’s acclaimed Teachers College, to the new position of provost and vice president for academic affairs. A large representation of the ESU community showed its overwhelming approval of Mehring’s promotion with long applause when university President Michael Lane approached a podium in Plumb Hall to deliver the news this morning. When the applause finally died down, Lane joked that it was “proof that some announcements don’t need to be made.”
Mehring, a member of the university faculty for 27 years, becomes a replacement of sorts for former Vice President of Academic Affairs John Schwenn, who left ESU in February to become president of Dalton State College in Dalton, Ga. Mehring will begin her new job on June 16.
“I look forward to this new opportunity and putting forward my best efforts to serve (Emporia State), and I look forward to working with all of you,” she said.
She said in a news release that a top priority for her is bringing the university’s strategic plan to a final draft and informing everyone about the plan’s initiatives and goals.
Mehring arrived at ESU in 1981 as a lecturer. She was appointed associate dean of the Teachers College in 1993 and became dean in 1995. For five months in 2006, following the departure of university President Kay Schallenkamp, Mehring served as interim vice president for academic affairs while Schwenn served as interim president.
Last December, Edutopia magazine named the Teachers College as one of 10 education schools that were blazing a trail to better practices in teaching.
In his introduction of Mehring, Lane said it was rare to do a national search for a job, as ESU did for the provost-vice president position, “and find the ideal candidate so close to home. It’s a testament to the quality of the people who devote their professional careers to Emporia State University that they’re able to move up in the ranks and assume the responsibilities as their careers mature.”
The new position is part of the university’s administrative reorganization, which Lane said in January was done with the goal of creating a “single front door” for ESU students, standardizing the school’s data collection and data structuring.
Lane said the provost-vice president job will have more duties than Schwenn performed as vice president, because the provost will preside over the newly unified enrollment management division.
“That really is a significant increase in responsibility, as she’ll be responsible for ensuring that we’re recruiting the size and kind of student body that we want to bring to ESU, that we want in our online programs,” Lane said.
Mehring has a bachelor’s degree in applied music, music education and psychology from what is now the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, a master’s in counseling psychology from Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State), and a doctoral degree in special education/educational psychology from the University of Kansas.
Lane said a search for Mehring’s replacement as dean of the Teachers College will begin soon and would likely conclude by July 2009. An interim dean will be chosen to serve during that time.
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