Academic Leadership: Magic, Witchcraft, or Sorcery?

DEANS’ SERIES

Reflections from the “Dark Side”: Conversations about Leadership in the Academy

Bill Covino, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Date: Thursday, August 27, 2009
Time: 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.
Place: Alice Peters Auditorium, UBC 191

Academic Leadership: Magic, Witchcraft, or Sorcery?

With reference to rhetorical touchpoints such as Kenneth Burke's dramatism, J.L. Austin's speech acts, and Mary Daly's Wickedary, I will consider the ways in which our administrative discourse works magic, and how my training in rhetoric has led me to prefer generative magic-discourse (the synergy of multiple perspectives) to arresting magic-discourse ("Stop in the name of the Law!").

William A. Covino became Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs on July 6, 2009. The Provost is the university’s chief academic officer, providing leadership for the University’s eight schools and colleges, grants and research, the library, continuing and global education, and other academic units of the university. The Provost coordinates and implements academic goals, educational policy, curricular planning and development, academic program review, academic personnel actions, faculty and staff development, resource development and allocation, assessment, professional and regional accreditation, and strategic and master academic planning. Provost Covino came to California State University, Fresno after serving as Provost at California State University, Stanislaus, and as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Florida Atlantic University. He has also held faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago and San Diego State University. Covino’s administrative priorities and accomplishments have included developing and expanding distinctive academic programs, building greater support for applied scholarly research, improving student learning outcomes, increasing fundraising and partnership opportunities, and encouraging community engagement across the curriculum. His undergraduate and graduate teaching has included courses on rhetoric and literature, and his scholarly record features numerous chapters, articles, and reviews, as well as five books on rhetoric, literacy, imagination, and persuasion. Provost Covino received a PhD in English from the University of Southern California in 1981.

Join us for dialogue and lively conversation on leadership and professional development!

Light refreshments will be served.

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost