Perfetti joins the College from Whitman College, where she served as Dean for Faculty Development
Samuel Casey
News Editor
On Friday, March 29, President Sarah Bolton sent an email to the campus community announcing the hiring of Dr. Lisa Perfetti as the College’s new provost. Perfetti will succeed Carolyn Newton, who is retiring at the end of this school year.
In the email, Bolton described Perfetti’s experience as the associate dean for faculty development at Whitman College. “At Whitman, she has worked closely with the Provost and others on a wide range of issues, including academic program planning, faculty hiring and retention, curriculum revision and diversity and equity initiatives,” Bolton said.
“I would like to thank the [search] committee for all of their work, which led to appointing such a great new provost for the College,” Bolton added.
The search committee consisted of 10 faculty, staff and trustee members and was chaired by Professor Harry Gamble. He outlined some of the traits that the committee was looking for in a candidate.
“Among other things, we were looking for candidates who would be able to: lead in a collegial, collaborative and transparent style; promote teaching excellence and faculty research; bring a global perspective with expertise in international education, programs and partnerships,” Gamble said.
The search committee narrowed the applicants down to three finalists who each attended a reception to discuss topics with students and gave a public presentation to the campus community which included a question and answer session.
Professor Jennifer Bowen, a member of the search committee, explained the necessity of allowing students to connect with provost candidates, including Perfetti.
“It was important that students meet with Dr. Perfetti while she was on campus, so that she got the full picture of what we do at Wooster: that is, student-centered liberal arts,” Bowen said. “Dr. Perfetti connected very well with students during her visit [and] got a great view of our students’ interests, concerns and challenges on campus — both academic and co-curricular.”
When asked what led her to apply to Wooster, Perfetti explained that she was on-board the moment she read the job description.
“I have dedicated a good part of my administrative career to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education,” Perfetti said. “Any college today will indicate the importance of [those traits], but with Wooster, I felt that the commitment was significant.”
Perfetti added that she strongly believes in the power of mentored undergraduate research and that Whitman College has a similar event to I.S. Symposium where classes are canceled so students can present their research to other students, faculty and staff.
The new provost acknowledged that while her background in medieval studies may not appear to have a strong connection to the “real world,” it has helped her become a more passionate educator.
“I found that when I started to think about why medieval literature should matter to all my students … it made teaching both more challenging and more exciting. And from there I started to become really interested in general education, [and] the idea that we are educating students in a broad set of core skills and ways of thinking that will prepare them for the rest of their lives,” Perfetti said.
According to an email from Gamble, Perfetti served as Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Directing of the Center for Ethics at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania before going to Whitman. She was also a former Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.
As the Provost, Perfetti will also oversee the College’s Athletic Department which she has experience doing.
“At my current institution, Athletics is a part of the Academic Affairs division, so the model of scholar-athletes is very familiar to me,” Perfetti clarified. “In my prior work I have partnered with members of the Athletics division on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and have also helped ensure that faculty understand the importance of athletics to students and its role in development during their college years.”
Since she is coming to a new institution in a new area, Perfetti emphasized the importance of listening and meeting with several individuals on campus to learn about current initiatives and what they are excited or concerned about.
“After a period of listening, I will want to reflect back to the community what I have heard and trace out some possible short-term and long-term [goals],” Perfetti said.
Perfetti expanded on what she is most looking forward to when she starts as the provost on August 1. “When talking to friends and colleagues about my new appointment, I like to joke that apparently my destiny is to live in places with funny ‘W’ names,” she said. “In moving from Walla Walla to Wooster, I expect to find a certain continuity in the sense that both towns are about the same size and located in rural agricultural areas. But each place has its own quirks and treasures, so I’m looking forward to learning what those are in Wooster.”
Three new academic majors to be offered beginning in fall 2019 will be added in the College’s course catalog: statistical and data sciences (DATA), education (EDUC) and environmental studies (ENVS). These majors have been added after acknowledging the increasing interest among students in these fields.
“In the past, we know that some applicants chose not to attend Wooster once they understood that education or environmental studies was not a major program,” said Jennifer D. Winge, dean of Admissions.“We also know that data sciences is one of the most popular career fields; our applicant data shows increasing interest in both mathematics and computer science as a first-choice major.”
In a written proposal regarding the addition of data science major, Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science Jennifer Bowen linked students’ interest in DATA with the College’s commitment to mentored undergraduate research. “Wooster’s dedication to mentored undergraduate research means that students are looking to make valuable contributions to their fields of study,” Bowen said. “We predict that with more data becoming available every day, increasing numbers of students will choose Senior I.S. projects that require some understanding and analysis of data.”
The addition of these majors will also create more momentum in ensuring the College remains in competition with other institutions. “Not only will the three programs likely attract new interest to Wooster, but they will also allow us to remain competitive among our most popular overlap schools,” Winge reported. “Providing this focus will only support our enrollment work.”
Bowen also mentioned that these majors will enable students to explore a broader range of academic paths as well as career options, emphasizing the importance of allowing this flexibility with regards to the College. “Our community must remain attentive and design coursework to address the needs of as many academic paths and disciplines as possible,” Bowen said. “The department of mathematics and computer science sees this new major/minor as a transdisciplinary effort for the College. That is, an approach to curriculum integration which dissolves the boundaries between the conventional disciplines and organizes teaching and learning around the construction of meaning in the context of real-world problems or themes.”
Several courses related to each major will also be introduced in the fall. Adjustments have also been made specific to these majors and each of the courses has specific requirements to be fulfilled. For example, Bowen reported, “The new DATA major requires a concurrent major or minor, and also requires a 0.25 credit internship. The coursework is about one-third mathematics, one-third computer science and one-third ‘data’ courses; with an addition of only two new courses to our departmental offerings.” The name of the department has also been changed to the department of mathematical and computational sciences from the department of mathematics and computer science.
The education major will require students to major in another related discipline as well, specifically in the field of their desired licensure: elementary education, integrated social studies, adolescent to young adult education in integrated language arts or integrated mathematics.
The addition of these majors has already sparked interest among the student body, with students considering adding or even changing their majors to one of the three new additions. Ezana Kiros ’22, for example, is now considering majoring in education instead of minoring in the subject. “I was content with minoring in education, but with the addition of EDUC as a major, I’m definitely considering majoring in it instead,” he said. “I appreciate the College’s effort to have added this major since I know people who really want to major in EDUC.”
Gunjan Joshi ’22 is also considering declaring DATA as his major instead of computer science. “With all the opportunities surrounding this field, I am thinking of giving it a shot,” he reported.