Beauvais to have ‘open door’ policy
Laura Beauvais joins the list of new hires, as interim provost. PHOTO CREDIT: James Singer
As the University of Rhode Island transitions into new presidential leadership, another major position, provost and vice president for academic affairs, will be filled by interim Laura Beauvais on Oct 1.
Beauvais, who was a professor of management at URI before taking on this role, said she looks forward to working with Parlange on setting a new five-year plan for the University. Parlange and Beauvais are both talking to different groups at URI to form these future plans.
Currently, she is planning on only serving as the interim provost until a permanent provost is officially selected by President Marc Parlange and the Board of Trustees after a national search is conducted.
Current Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald DeHayes has also been working together with Beauvais on the transition for several weeks. He said he believes the University is in ‘great hands’ with this new pair of administrators as DeHayes prepares to leave URI.
“This is a very, very exciting time at the University,” DeHayes said. “A time to be nothing but optimistic about the future. Through the lens of students, through the lens of faculty, the University has been on a wonderful upward trajectory, and I think the transition to President Parlange and Interim Provost Beauvais is going to be smooth and is going to maintain an upward trajectory.”
Beauvais is looking forward to working with the Student Senate with an ‘open door’ policy and plans to have an advisory board to meet with students in a more informal manner periodically to find out ‘what’s on their mind.’
Having been at URI for the past 36 years, Beauvais has served in many roles. She served as vice provost for faculty affairs from 2009 to 2019 before returning to a faculty position as a professor of management once more.
In this position, she said worked mostly with curriculum, pedagogy and faculty. She oversaw the Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, which focuses on faculty development.
“I know a lot of people. I generally know how things work and being in the position [of] vice provost for about a decade I learned to work within this office,” Beauvais said. “So it’s not totally new, but the jobs are very different between being a vice provost and a provost.”
In her new position, Beauvais will be responsible for making decisions concerning budget and addressing issues going on throughout the various colleges at the University.
There are a lot of moving parts in the position of provost, according to Beauvais, which has made her transition into the role have a ‘steep’ learning curve.
“The way I’ve been thinking about it is: any one thing is not difficult, but there are just so many different issues that a provost deals with,” she said.
Most recently, Beauvais moved from the role of vice provost for faculty affairs to teaching as a professor of management. She said she loved working directly with students and learning from them and will miss it.
“I wanted to leave the vice provost [for faculty affairs] position, not because I wasn’t enjoying the work, and I think I was doing a good job; [it was] that I wanted to be with students again,” she said. “I like being engaged in the learning mission.”
The success of students at URI in their learning and future successes in the world is very important to Beauvais.
“I like being with students,” Beauvais said. “They are the future and they are so much fun to be with. I learn so much from them.”