The Office of the Provost hosted its inaugural “Pizza with the Provost” event. The event gave staff members of the Office of the Provost and undergraduate students the opportunity to interact with each other.
The event opened with all of the students introducing themselves. Students represented a wide-variety of majors — from Science, Technology & Society to Civil Engineering — and all class years at Stevens. Afterwards, the two members of the Office of the Provost introduced themselves — Cindy Chin, Assistant Provost for Finance and Administration, and Christophe Pierre, Provost. Chin noted that she was a Stevens alumna who majored in Business and Technology and was a member of Alpha Phi Omega and Delta Phi Epsilon. In her professional career, she started in the financial industry before moving to Stevens as an admissions counselor and then in the Provost office.
Pierre noted that he started his education in his native country of France before immigrating to the United States in 1982. In the U.S., he obtained his master’s degree at Princeton before pursuing a P.h.D. at Duke University in Mechanical Engineering. Afterwards, he worked as a professor at University of Michigan and progressed up the ranks to more administrative roles. Afterwards, he worked at McGill University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne before taking the the role of Provost at Stevens. He noted the difference in environment between a large, public institution and a small, private university such as Stevens.
Pierre noted some initiatives the provost office is working on. He noted that they are hoping to improve the faculty and student interaction both inside and outside the classroom and is looking forward to working with the Student-Faculty Alliance to accomplish this goal. They are also looking forward to the implementation of Accelerated Masters Program (AMP), a program that streamlines the process for undergraduate students to obtain their master’s degree at Stevens. The Office of Provost hopes that with the new program, about half of the undergraduate population will pursue their master’s degree at Stevens.
Students then proceeded to give feedback based upon their experience at Stevens. One student noted that she found her MA 124 class difficult, as there was not enough time to cover the material in lecture. Pierre stated that he would reach out to ensure that everything is being taught in the appropriate time span. Multiple students praised the professors in the CAL department. One student noted that their CAL professor always tries to help the students in their classes — and even students who have taken their class in the past. However, they also stressed that the CAL department is understaffed. Pierre noted that they are working on a CAL Master Plan in the future.
In response to the lack of faculty, Pierre noted that Stevens is a tuition-based university. The majority of money that Stevens spends is from the tuition it collects — roughly split evenly from the undergraduate and graduate population, not research grants or state funds like other schools. As Stevens grows in students and collects more tuition, the school will be able to hire more faculty members.
The event ended with Pierre asking students a theoretical opened-ended question asking for feedback about the academic calendar: would students prefer a shorter Winter Break accompanied with the academic year ending sooner? Some students liked a potential idea of shortening Winter Break to finish the Academic School Year, citing problems when studying abroad. Others liked the long Winter Break, but wished that the finals period were only one week — a length similar to other schools.
The Office of the Provost plans to make Pizza with the Provost a small, recurring event throughout the semester. Chin asked the participants to spread the word about the event. Students reacted positively to the event. “I’m glad that there seems to be a culture developing at Stevens where upper administration actively seeks input from students,” said Rami Kammourh, Vice President of Operations and a participant of the inaugural Pizza with the Provost. “Although I think there’s still some work to do until Stevens is truly student-centric, I’m glad to see multiple events like this each semester.” The Office of the Provost plans to host another Pizza with the Provost in the future after taking into account feedback from the participants.
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