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Dianne Oliver, left, and Denise Baird were appointed co-provosts of St. Catherine University as of June 1.
St. Catherine University
The transition of leadership at St. Catherine University began in early March with two women, a dry-erase board and a novel idea.
Provost Anita Thomas’s pending departure from the Roman Catholic women’s institution in Minnesota hadn’t formally been announced, but Dianne Oliver and Denise Baird, who were associate provost and assistant provost, respectively, knew the position could soon be vacant. So they took to the whiteboard and started brainstorming.
“‘How do we fill those shoes?’” Baird remembered thinking. “‘The job is massive.’”
Baird and Oliver both thought about the breadth of responsibilities the position encompassed, discussed the institutional strains caused by the turnover of leadership and considered the pros and cons of an internal successor to Thomas versus an external leader.
Throughout their conversations, the pair began to notice the complementary nature of their own strengths. Baird has a background in academic policy and student outcomes and recently led the university’s reaccreditation process. Oliver has experience in faculty support and recently supervised a redesign of the faculty bylaws to promote shared governance.
They concluded that they were both strong candidates for the provost job and would work well as co-provosts.
“We wanted to be able to create both some stability of leadership, but also to bring the expertise that we had to the table,” Oliver said. “It became very clear that the opportunities far outweighed the potential pitfalls for the two of us to take on the work.”
The two women discussed their idea with the university president and the leaders and members of the Faculty Senate and revised and adjusted their pitch along the way based on the feedback. ReBecca Koenig Roloff, the university’s president, also presented their proposal to the Board of Trustees, which supported the plan.
Oliver and Baird were named co-provosts a month later.
Although co-leaders are familiar in the business world, they are less common in higher education, where traditional structures of institutional administration are more rigid. Higher education association leaders and consultants have mixed opinions on the concept, but many St. Catherine administrators, faculty members and trustees were excited by the idea and saw it as an opportunity to be innovative while still prioritizing stability and continuity of experienced leadership.
An Opportunity for Innovation
“Higher ed is very different than it was,” Oliver said. “When I think about the scope of the provost’s role … it is big, it is complex and it keeps getting more so.”
Oliver and Baird saw the challenge of having so many new responsibilities as an opportunity to reimagine the role of the provost.
“The notion that we can multitask is a myth,” Baird said. But by splitting the responsibilities of the provost into two co-leader roles, the hope is that less multitasking would be required. “Many hands make light work,” Baird added.
They also understood that the work was going to be anything but light.
The university is facing enrollment declines—2,416 undergraduates were enrolled in fall 2022 compared to 3,770 in fall 2017—and budget challenges, like many other higher ed institutions across the country. It also is under pressure to provide academic programs that meet labor market needs and produce measurable student outcomes.
The university is at “a time in higher education where you just can’t afford to lose ground,” Baird said.
Baird now oversees academic operations and student success, and Oliver manages academic programs and faculty affairs. Their shared duties include developing an institutional vision with the senior leadership teams of the president and the Board of Trustees.
Steven Kenney Jr., senior vice president for human resources, equity and inclusion, had only been on staff for a month when Roloff told him about the proposal to have two provosts.
Kenney had questions about how it would work, but he also saw the opportunity to think outside the box.
“In higher education, sometimes we get so pigeonholed into how things have historically been done,” Kenney said. “I’m often thinking about how do we evolve as people? And more importantly, how do we evolve as an institution that’s here to support people?”
He said the new provost model helps answer such questions.
“It was, more or less, we have this great momentum going on with the current landscape. How do we keep that going on?” he said.
Hopes for Stability & Continuity
Rachel Neiwert, president of the Faculty Senate, said Baird and Oliver had already formed “great relationships” with faculty members and established “trust” and “goodwill” when the Senate was brought into conversations about the co-provost roles. This contributed to support for the move.
“Moving to something known versus something unknown for a lot of people seemed like a better next step,” Neiwert said of Baird and Oliver. “We would have that sort of ongoing continuity and stability.”
And while some observers might view two provosts instead of one as administrative bloat, Neiwert said the change actually “took out a layer of bureaucracy.” When Baird and Oliver were promoted, their former positions were discontinued. (An associate provost of student affairs was retained but was given the new title of vice president for student affairs.)
“Diane and Denise bring a really unique spirit around thinking about collaborative leadership that I think is exciting for us as faculty to get to see, to learn from and also then think about, how we work with our own students,” Neiwert said.
The pair worked with Roloff to draw clear lines of responsibilities and authority, which were then shared in an email to the faculty and staff earlier this month.
Making It Work
Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said the restructured provost role at St. Catherine is an opportunity “to reimagine and revolutionize” campus leadership. She noted, however, that other institutions may not be able to adopt similar leadership models at a time when budgetary pressures are forcing leaders to “do more with less.”
“It’s a decision that is in the best interest of their community right now, “ she said of St. Catherine’s co-provost role. “But it might not be in the best interest of other institutions.”
Barbara Gitenstein, a senior consultant for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, a former provost at Drake University in Iowa and former president of the College of New Jersey, has mixed feeling about the co-provost role.
She received a co-provost proposal from two internal administrators when the provost job came open at the New Jersey college, but after “a long conversation,” she chose to appoint one of the candidates as provost and the other as vice provost. It was important that “there was one person who would be that last voice in the room,” she said.
She said clearly delineated responsibilities would be key to Baird’s and Oliver’s success in the new role.
“The provost’s job is so big that I think the notion of division of responsibilities makes sense,” Gitenstein said. “The question is how does that work in the decision-making process?”
Although it’s unclear whether the co-provost role would remain if Baird or Oliver left the university or retired, Baird is hopeful it becomes permanent.
“It’s nontraditional, but it’s feasible that this really could be sustained,” she said.
Oliver added that the role also will set an example for students about collaborative leadership and reinforce the institution’s mission “to educate women to lead and influence.”
