Midwestern State University named Dr. Margaret Brown Marsden as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs on Dec. 8, 2023. She will officially begin on January 1st, 2024. Brown Marsden has served as interim provost since January, and was previously dean of the McCoy College of Science, Mathematics and Engineering.
Brown Marsden started at MSU in 2015 as a faculty member, working her way up to chair, then associate dean.
“Having been a dean, I recognize the work that deans have to do. So I can make sure that I preserve and respect their autonomy in their own roles, while at the same time recognizing that they’re part of the team that the provost’s office uses to help accomplish the university’s goals,” Brown Marsden said.
Brown Marsden says learning new aspects of her career as she works is important to her. While searching for provost positions, Brown Marsden achieved a certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University.
“That was really helpful to sort of think about, the language, and the ways that you manage human diversity and inclusion in your operation and organization,” Brown Marsden explained, later adding, “My philosophy has been to read as much as possible and to try to belong to groups that have academic leaders.”
Brown Marsden addressed three main academic barriers for students: difficulty navigating through degrees, lack of collaboration across campus and lack of imagination in how MSU operates.
“So how do we rethink the way to approach those barriers that students experience, whether it’s a class is not available, or they don’t have a degree program that they want or they experience a life event that makes it really hard for them to finish their degree,” Brown Marsden said.
Brown Marsden commented that the First Year Mustangs Adventure class is breaking the collaboration barrier across campus, with different offices and staff participating and teaching. She also mentioned first year seminars, which involve students as instructors, as expanding cross-campus collaboration.
When it comes to imagination, Brown Marsden says there is opportunity for change in higher education across the country.
“How can we reimagine how we’re doing things and taking some input from students and faculty and staff to say, ‘Okay, let’s imagine this a different way,’” Brown Marsden said.
Working past these barriers is a long-term goal, which Brown Marsden recognizes.
“And I think we can do that, then we can bring in more students, we can retain more students,” she said.
Brown Marsden said issues with student registration is a major concern of hers, and she says she wants to work on those issues going forward.
“Things like holds on student registration. That’s a lot, that’s a big barrier for them to be able to register, it could be a really tiny financial hold. How do we take those out for students? How do we improve the path to degree?” Brown Marsden said.
She described an internal program MSU uses to help students graduate in a timely manner. Part of the program helps students locate “unicorn classes,” which are courses that are rare, but required to graduate.
Part of Brown Marsden’s plan to improve academic life across campus includes changing the writing proficiency requirements by replacing the writing proficiency exam.
MSU’s administration is going to work with deans and programs over the next year to decide on how to best replace the exam.
“Most schools that don’t have an exam either have writing in the discipline or writing in the curriculum, what I think our approach is going to be is writing in the discipline,” Brown Marsden said.
Writing in the discipline means students will have courses and work designed around their major to complete, rather than taking a generalized exam like in previous years. The WPE will not be required for students graduating after August 2024.
One of the goals of President Haynie’s administration is to improve MSU and Sheppard Air Force Base relations. Brown Marsden said that one way to strengthen that bond is by creating a track for servicemembers to obtain degrees in a way that will work for them, and to offer higher education to officers looking for promotion.
Sheppard is hosting two events: an airshow in the spring, which MSU will attend, and a S.T.E.A.M. event for high schoolers.
“We’re going to try to participate in that S.T.E.A.M. event and there’s a chance that we can have some opportunities for our students to get out there too, an MSU brand to be out there to talk to people,” Brown Marsden said, adding, “I’ve been to a couple of air shows at Sheppard and we’ve never had that kind of connection. And this time we’re really going to build a connection.”
Despite her tenure as interim provost, Brown Marsden went through the same selection process as the other candidates.
“Which would include the application, and the, you know there’s a post application questionaire, and then there’s a Zoom interview, and then there was the campus interview. So every single step that everybody else had to take,” she said, “But what’s good for the campus, I think, is to have a second look. So I served in one role here on campus, am I the right person for this other role on campus? And so, everybody gets to look at the qualifications, the stuff I do, and so, I’m glad this process happened. I’m certainly glad to be here,” she added.
