Chancellor ballard appoints new provost and senior vice chancellor

After a national search, Chancellor Ballard has found the new Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, Marilyn Sheerer, Ph.D.

With a bachelor's degree from Bloomsburg State College in Pennsylvania, a master's from Syracuse University, a Ph.D. from Ohio University and years of working at ECU as a professor and chair of the Department of Elementary and Middle Grades Education, Sheerer has a wide variety of experience to bring to the position.

"Marilyn Sheerer is a special person with a remarkable combination of ability, enthusiasm, experience and energy," said Chancellor Steve Ballard. "She is an accomplished leader who is well known and respected throughout North Carolina, and she is exactly the right person to fill this critical role at the university."

According to the ECU Web site, the responsibilities of a provost are vast and include administering all academic and administrative policies and operations of all the seven colleges and creating additional key academic functions and activities that support the academic demands of the university.

Not only do the duties of a provost include all of the above but it also consists of developing the "whole student," which is a student that is developed academically, intellectually, socially, professionally and culturally.

The "whole student" development is achieved through programs, activities and functions that are made up of both the academic and student life on campus in which the provost will be overseeing and working with.

Many students would like to see more programs at the university that promote tolerance among different populations.

"I would like to see more cultural studies programs at ECU that would create understanding and tolerance among multicultural populations," said ECU senior Christopher Kent. "This broadened knowledge would reduce stereotypes and prejudices creating the vital cultural corporation needed in today's workforce."

As ECU students and faculty look forward to what Sheerer has to offer as the new Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, she looks forward to working with her new title.

"I am honored by the confidence that Chancellor Ballard and the university have placed in me," Sheerer said. "ECU has become my home, and I am very happy to be continuing my service here."

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.