Jobs at Member Institutions & APLU

Michigan State University (MSU) seeks a collaborative and strategic senior-level administrator to serve as the next Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs (VPFASA). Applications, inquires and nominations are invited.

The VPFASA is responsible for envisioning, leading, and implementing the university’s strategic commitment and priority to advance faculty and academic staff success and to contribute to an academic climate of respect, caring, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The VPFASA reports to and serves at the pleasure of the Provost, who is designated by the Board of Trustees as the principal academic officer of the University.

The VPFASA leads a team of approximately 15 professionals with expertise in academic human resources, professional development, and leadership development. The direct reports to the VPFASA include three Assistant Provosts (one leading the Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Development (FASD); one coordinating Policies and Processes; one coordinating Performance, Conduct, and Compliance); one Senior Director (coordinating Executive and Academic Leadership searches for positions reporting to the Provost); and several Directors who liaison with colleges.

The Office of the VPFASA supports organizational development and culture building to ensure that MSU is developing and implementing leading-edge policies and resources, and providing high-quality professional development, all designed to enhance institutional excellence, productive academic work environments, institutional priorities to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, and individual advancement and success aligned with university strategic priorities. To accomplish this work, the Office of the VPFASA collaborates with Academic Governance, college deans, the Office of the President, the Office of the General Counsel, Human Resources, the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE), Institutional Diversity Initiatives (IDI), the Faculty Grievance Officer (FGO), the Faculty Excellence Advocates (FEAs), the Office of Prevention, Outreach, and Education (POE), the Office of Audit, Risk, and Compliance (OARC), the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences, and other University partners. Several members of the staff of the Office of the VPFASA serve as liaisons providing direct collaboration with and support to MSU colleges and academic and administrative units regarding faculty and academic staff matters. In addition to work with units internal to MSU, the VPFASA also represents MSU in national meetings and forums, such as meetings of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.

The VPFASA supervises work in several key areas of focus designed to support the university’s strategic goals (see MSU’s 2030 Strategic Plan):

• Policies, resources, and processes relevant to academic careers and work;
• Appointment processes for faculty, academic staff, and academic leadership (including searches and retention of faculty, academic staff, academic managers, and administrative leaders; academic labor bargaining and contracts; tenure and promotion policies; evaluation of non-tenure-system faculty and academic specialists; salary issues; retirement processes);
• Faculty/academic staff professional development and leadership development across the stages of the academic career;
• Performance, conduct, and compliance issues (including Title IX-related issues).

A terminal degree appropriate in one’s field is required as is a record of accomplishment consistent with appointment as a full professor in the tenure system.

WittKieffer is assisting Michigan State University in this search. For fullest consideration, candidate materials should be received by August 4, 2023. All applications, nominations and inquiries are invited and confidential. Applications should include, as three separate documents, a CV or resume and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the leadership profile. Candidates should also submit a statement of how past/and or potential contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion will advance MSU’s commitment to inclusive excellence.  View full leadership profile here: https://www.wittkieffer.com/position/24686-vice-provost-and-associate-vice-president-for-faculty-and-academic-staff-affairs/

Application materials, nominations and expressions of personal interest should be sent to:

Jessica Herrington and Natalie Song at MSUVPFASA@wittkieffer.com

In addition, candidates must apply through Michigan State’s online portal.

Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg–Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. The University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.