My kind of provost

This morning I saw our new(ish) provost out jogging in the rain, and I immediately looked to see if she was being chased by angry faculty members, demanding parents, or domineering trustees. But no: she was simply getting some exercise, and she wasn't going to let a little rain stop her.

I like that. And it's not the only thing I like about our new(ish) provost: I like the fact that she does not need to be repeatedly educated about how my discipline works, that she reads the annual evaluations I write about my faculty members and responds to them with encouraging and constructive comments, and that she writes clear and sophisticated prose. Most of all, I like the fact that she cares enough about faculty research to actually read and converse intelligently about our work. I'm not naming names here, but I'm a little tired of administrators who claim that we humanities scholars are somehow deficient because "all you do is read books and write about them." An administrator who engages with my research as if it really matters and offers insights from her own field is my kind of provost.

I'd like to tell her so, but I'd have to catch her first--and I'm not about to go out running in this weather.