Demonstrating her No. 1 priority, Dr. Karen M. Whitney\u2014the new interim chancellor of Pennsylvania\u2019s State System of Higher Education\u2014will spend her first days on the job on campuses meeting with students and others at Slippery Rock and Indiana universities of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to spend my first days as interim chancellor listening and learning,\u201d said Dr. Whitney, whose tenure as interim chancellor begins today. \u201cI want to hear what is important to our students, and let them know my priorities. Everything we do at each of our universities\u2014and as a system\u2014should be focused on our students and their success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Whitney will visit Slippery Rock University today and IUP tomorrow. In addition to meeting with students on both campuses, she also plans to meet today with representatives of faculty and staff, and tomorrow with the university presidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impressive that Dr. Whitney will spend her first day on the job out here on the campus,\u201d said Brian Swatt, IUP\u2019s student body president and a student member of the Board of Governors. \u201cThere are so many opportunities and so many possibilities ahead for our universities and our system, and we look forward to talking with her about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are just the first of many visits I plan to make to our universities,\u201d Dr. Whitney said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me to have collaborative, open and trusting relationships with students, faculty and staff across the System. As we build these connections, we will enhance our ability to advance the distinctive roles of each of our universities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery student succeeds by having strong state universities and a strong State System. That will be among my driving priorities as I work to help ensure the System\u2019s continued advancement and a successful transition to the next era of system leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Whitney previously served for more than seven years as president of Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She is expected to serve as interim chancellor until the conclusion of a national search for a permanent chancellor sometime next year. \u201cMy job is to keep the System moving forward while we search for the next chancellor, and I\u2019m laser-focused on that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Whitney is smart, strategic and pragmatic,\u201d said Board of Governors Chair Cynthia D. Shapira. \u201cBecause she has strong relationships across the System and beyond\u2014and is keenly aware of the challenges and opportunities ahead\u2014I\u2019m confident she will hit the ground running so we can continue our forward momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is student focused, which is clearly evident from how she plans to start her tenure as interim chancellor. This meshes perfectly with our mission of providing high-quality, affordable higher educational opportunities to students in every region of the state, and we\u2019re grateful to have Karen in this vital role at this important time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Whitney assumes the role of interim chancellor as the Board of Governors is preparing an inclusive process to develop an implementation plan as the next phase in the strategic system review, which the Board and former chancellor commissioned last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur purpose is to ensure we have a 21st century public higher education system that is second to none, and optimally serves the people of the Commonwealth,\u201d said Shapira, describing the ultimate goal of the review.<\/p>\n
\u201cI applaud the Board and the System for having the courage to take these important steps for our universities,\u201d said Dr. Whitney. \u201cBecause of the foundation they\u2019ve laid, we are prepared to take bold steps toward increasing educational opportunities for students, modernizing how we do business and ensuring a successful transition to the next permanent chancellor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Whitney promised a \u201cvery intense and productive year, using a transparent, highly communicative, collaborative and evidenced-based leadership style.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRobust, public higher education is critically important to the future of Pennsylvania,\u201d she said. \u201cI will talk with and listen to folks who are committed to working together to drive this very productive agenda to advance every university.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania\u2019s State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, enrolling more than 100,000 degree-seeking students and thousands more in certificate and other career-development programs. Collectively, the 14 universities that comprise the State System offer more than 2,300 degree and certificate programs in more than 530 academic areas. Nearly 520,000 State System university alumni live in Pennsylvania. <\/em><\/p>\n The State System universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The universities also operate branch campuses in Oil City (Clarion), Freeport and Punxsutawney (IUP), and Clearfield (Lock Haven), and offer classes and programs at several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and in Center City in Philadelphia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Demonstrating her No. 1 priority, Dr. Karen M. Whitney\u2014the new interim chancellor of Pennsylvania\u2019s State System of Higher Education\u2014will spend her first days on the job on campuses meeting with students and others at Slippery Rock and Indiana universities of Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":16210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news-release","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16208"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16213,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16208\/revisions\/16213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}