A Conversation With ... Frank Einhellig, Ph.D.

What is your job as interim provost?
(The role is) conceived of as more on the order of the second in command under the president of the institution. I have oversight of and give leadership to our six major academic colleges, our school of agriculture, our graduate college and the library. And we have an honors college that crosses over all the curriculum. I have the overall responsibility for our programming, our faculty hiring, goal-setting and all organization related to academic life. I would not want to overstate that I do everything, but it’s the leadership role. Success is only gained as everybody’s working together.

You joined MSU in 1992 as dean of the graduate college. How did the college change during your nearly 20-year tenure before moving into your current position?
We’ve more than doubled the number of graduate students and actually have two-and-a-half times the number of graduate programs available for students to pursue. We now have 51 graduate programs, and when I came, we had 20.

In 2011, the administration announced a plan for you to become associate vice president of research July 1, 2011, but shortly after then-President James Cofer’s abrupt resignation in late June, interim President Clif Smart appointed you interim provost. Are you interested in the position on a permanent basis?
I haven’t made any commitments either way. We’re currently looking for a permanent president. That process ought to conclude some time, I would say, before Christmas. And that will determine where we go on the provost.

Are you involved with the presidential search committee?
No, I’m not. It’s pretty well publicly known (Smart) is an applicant for the position, but beyond that, I don’t know anything.

What’s been your philosophy regarding the recent changes in university administration?
My philosophy is that I’m contributing the best I can to look forward in all the challenges of the university. We constantly (look) to make sure we have the programs that are needed by students in today’s society and of the quality that’s expected of this university. My philosophy is to not look backward but more to look forward.

Are you still teaching courses?
All of my career, the only year I haven’t taught a class was this past year. I’m a biologist, a plant physiologist, and a physiological ecologist. I’ve always continued to teach, not because somebody told me I had to, but because that’s a part of what keeps you in contact with where students are. Last year, I (elected) to not teach, because we’ve had so many changes, with the presidential change at the same time, and it didn’t look very feasible to do so. And it was probably the right decision.

What are your primary goals right now?
To hire good faculty is always a top priority. Among the top priorities, we are trying to increase access to the university through evening, online and different ways of offering our programs to people who are sometimes at a distance. Increasing access is a major part of our long-range plan. (Another priority) is always to improve the quality of our programs for the students, which means we’re trying to increase interpersonal-level education with (more) study-away and undergraduate and graduate research opportunities and service learning opportunities for students. We do have a priority on maintaining and strengthening our enrollment, and that’s just kind of an automatic one, but to do that, we’ve been trying to provide all of the academic areas of study that are needed. This past year, we added three graduate programs, and we’ll probably add several (more) in the next year, both undergraduate and possibly at the graduate level.