Jay A. Harper, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Rowan University, has been named to the position of Provost of the University of Mary Washington.
Harper will serve as the chief academic officer of the university and will be responsible for oversight of all academic programs, academic planning and budgets, and faculty matters. Working with the deans and the faculty, the Provost provides leadership of major university initiatives in teaching, research, and creative activities and has responsibility for all university educational and academic policies. Harper will start July 1, 2009 as the first permanent administrator to fill the position and will succeed Nina Mikhalevsky, who has served as Acting Provost since 2007.
In announcing his appointment, President Judy G. Hample said, “Dr. Harper is a talented, experienced and accomplished teacher, scholar, and administrator whose commitment to excellence will help raise the profile of the University of Mary Washington.” The Provost Search Committee was chaired by Professor Craig Vasey, chair of the Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religion, and the Committee was constituted largely of faculty from across the University. Regarding Harper’s appointment, Vasey observed, “The Search Committee was impressed with Dr. Harper’s record of accomplishments as a dean empowering faculty and department chairs, and leading in the creation of interdisciplinary and international programs at Rowan. With his appointment, UMW will take a real step forward.”
At Rowan, Harper has served as dean and professor at the Glassboro, N.J., institution since 1999. As dean, he has provided leadership for more than 160 tenure-track faculty as well as 200 temporary and part-time faculty. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the largest college at Rowan University with 14 academic departments, six interdisciplinary majors, a planetarium, four research/service centers, an international center and a separate institute for community involvement. Rowan University has an enrollment of more than 10,000 students, and nearly 4,000 undergraduates pursue degrees within the liberal arts college.
An educator in his 30th year, Harper also has served as associate dean and professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Slippery Rock University, chairperson and associate professor in the Department of Psychology at State University of New York College (SUNY) at Old Westbury, and visiting associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at SUNY at Stony Brook.
A New York native, Harper earned a B.S. degree, with Honors, in Psychology at City College, City University of New York and a Ph.D. degree in Psychobiology from State University of New York at Stony Brook. Harper was a Ford Foundation Fellow from 1975 through 1979 and a Fulbright Fellow to Japan in 1996. In 1986, Harper received the State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 1993, he was recognized by Black Opinion Magazine for the Black Achievers Award.
Professor Harper has published scholarly articles in refereed journals in the field of neuroscience utilizing electrophysiological and neuro-pharmacological techniques to examine brain functioning. He also has an interest in Japanese language, history and culture.