Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Vernon Harper has recently been appointed as CSU Bakersfield’s interim provost for the next 18 months by university President Dr. Lynette Zelezny. Along with this new position, he will continue his role as Vice President of Academic Affairs that he started in 2016.

At the end of last semester, Dr. Jenny Zorn announced in an email to the campus community that she would be retiring effective that day, Dec. 11, 2018. Zorn had been the provost since July 2015.

Zorn’s retirement announcement came as a shock to the campus community.

“I know it’s been a shock and I do want to publicly express my deepest gratitude to Provost Zorn, who was certainly a student-centric provost and was beloved by the faculty,” said Zelezny.

Zorn was hired as the university provost, which is the second in command for this university, on July 31, 2015 by former CSUB president, Dr. Horace Mitchell. She was actively involved in a lot of student-related activities and working on the university’s WASC accreditation, Graduation 2025 initiative, and advising overhaul, before announcing her retirement. Her annual salary was $242,292 and her benefits added up to $106,225.

Sonia Silva, International Students and Programs director, described Zorn as a “very pro-international” person, as she was also very hands-on with the university’s international students and bringing resources to them.

Not only was Zorn working with the university, but she was also an active board member for the United Way of Kern County. Zorn also left her board member position after retiring from CSUB.

Mari Perez-Dowling, director of UWKC, explained that Zorn brought a lot of new opportunities to them. She said that it was nice to have someone representing CSUB on the board because it opened a lot of doors to them. She also described her as “always enthusiastic” and a “happy camper” and admired her mentorship to the younger staff at United Way.

The Runner made multiple attempts to contact Zorn, but she was not available for a reply. When The Runner made a social media post about her retirement announcement in December, she left a comment stating “Proud to have been a ‘Runner. Always remember my motto: ‘It’s About the Students.’”

Zelezny stated that she made consultations with the Academic Senate, Academic Affairs Council, and individuals that directly report to the provost, before appointing Harper as interim provost. His annual salary will be $195,708 as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

“I asked about the qualities people were interested in and what I heard first and foremost is that there was an interest in the interim provost being equally as Provost Zorn was, a student-focused leader, a collaborator, a listener, and also someone that had a deep experience with academic programming, the accreditation ahead of us, and our graduation initiative,” said Zelezny.

She also described Harper as a “very effective communicator” and a “data savvy leader.”

“He has been very well received, I will say, by the faculty thus far and I think the students will also find him to be a very friendly, engaging provost,” said Zelezny.

“I’m gracious to have the opportunity that president Zelezny, after her consultation with the faculty and senior leadership, had the confidence in me to be able to take this internal role for 18 months,” said Harper. “I’m very appreciative and thankful for the campus in having me in this role.”

Harper stated that he intends the office of the provost to reorganize the priorities of student success, academic integrity and excellence.

“One of the things we’re going to be looking at very closely over the next six months is doing absolutely everything we can to create pathways for students to graduate, to address our four- and six-year graduation rates for first-time students, as well as our two- and four-year graduation rates for transfer students,” said Harper. “And (it is) also important to address any equity gaps that are associated with our graduation rates.”

Harper mentioned that his agenda also includes looking closely at enrollment management to ensure that students are served as well as possible, graduation checks are accurate, and students are being advised accordingly to graduate.

Last year, Zorn began making changes to the university’s advising system. She brought in evaluators and conducted campus surveys to figure out where renovations were needed.

“Advising is on our radar and provost Harper has come forward to give us a plan for students who have been identified as students who will graduate,” said Zelezny. “So if a student is having a success story, I know exactly who their support team is and if they are having a challenge I also know who to go to.”

Zelezny said that a few changes to the provost have already been announced. These include working on how to effectively stretch financial aid to benefit students and bringing more opportunities to campus housing.

“I think this is very important because to me it really relates to our graduation initiative,” said Zelezny. “We need to be thinking of a different way of doing financial aid that would retain students, particularly our freshmen students.”

Zelezny mentioned that campus conversations that benefit graduation initiative efforts will occur soon.

Although the provost appointment is set for 18 months, there is no assigned search committee for a permanent provost yet.