Nolan returns to campus with
Arizona State experience

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

Linda Nolan (Stan Sherer photo)

s an American Council on Education (ACE) fellow last year, Linda Nolan studied distance education, the fine art of academic leadership, and the workings of another campus. Nolan, special assistant to the chancellor, spent 10 months on the Arizona State campus, shadowing its senior vice president and provost, Milton Glick, and researching e-learning for her ACE classmates.

     Nolan said she was interested in the academic side of administration and that she also studied community relations and fund-raising.

     In addition to observing Glick, Nolan was a member of the president's cabinet and dean's council, as part of her ACE goal to familiarize herself with upper-level higher education administration. She said working with Glick gave her a clear view of the campus.

     "Essentially, [at ASU] the provost runs the institution," she said. "Student affairs, research, administrative services - along with the traditional role of managing academic affairs - is under the provost. In some institutions, the president would be doing some of the things Milton Glick does."

     Nolan describes the president, Lattie F. Coor, and Glick as a highly functional team with complementary strengths. Coor is statesmanlike, she said, with a radio voice, the ability to raise funds, and a focus on the big picture. Glick is a tireless source of information, planning, and quality control. What they share is a vision of the university and a commitment to enhancing lines of communication and collaboration around the institution and within the state's higher education system.

    "They're not afraid to try new things, take risks; their attitude is: well, if it doesn't work, we'll change it," Nolan said. "So they're very adaptive and flexible.

     "Every faculty member and every administrator from that institution had nothing but glowing reviews [for Coor and Glick]. Such high morale and such consensus at a university is unique, so I wanted to go there and see how they did it.

     "[Staff] were constantly being updated on state, national, and international issues," she said. "It ... allowed the community to bond with one another, which you could see in decision-making processes. People were truly friends; deliberations were respectful.

     People have a global view of the university, the health of the entire institution, and [they know] the role they play in the economy of the state. I didn't see, from my vantage point, a lot of turf wars."

     The ACE recently retooled its fellows program to focus more on change in higher education, and Nolan was attentive to those issues.

     "The public is forcing institutions to revisit fundamental questions about whom they are serving, how well they are serving them, what goals they are trying to reach, and how their accomplishments affect their state and societal problems," she said.

     She applauded ASU's planning process, which involves a summer retreat for deans to evaluate progress, learn about future trends, and set new goals.

     "It provided continuity and momentum," she said. "They tried to be years ahead of the game, looking at demographics, the economy, what people think about the university."

     UMass administrators had asked Nolan to look into distance, or "distributed," learning. As part of her fellowship, Nolan produced a Web site for other ACE fellows on best practices in e-learning, and participated in a study of the joint distance-education effort of Arizona's three universities, called Arizona Regents University.

     Nolan said the ACE experience exceed her expectations.

     "I feel like I have a group of life-long colleagues," she said. "I want to continue to learn about administration and use what I learn to serve UMass in whatever capacity I'm called to do."

     Nolan is also a professor of Environmental Health Sciences. She teaches an interdisciplinary General Education course, "My Body, My Health," in addition to her role in the Chancellor's Office. Across her career, she has been awarded $3.25 million in external research grants. She previously served as the director of the Honors Program and as interim dean of Commonwealth College.