For the first time Wednesday, provost candidate Steven Hoch came to Baton Rouge and LSU to meet with faculty, staff and students.
Hoch is a professor of Russian history and associate provost of academic programs and dean of international programs at the University of Iowa.
He is the third provost candidate to visit the campus since former provost Dan Fogel left to be president at the University of Vermont in July.
Hoch said LSU is an outstanding institution and is actively working to improve administration standards, graduation rates and retention rates.
As a faculty member at UI, Hoch said he was in charge of reviewing the academic programs and identifying their areas of strength.
Hoch said he has worked to increase the number of UI students who study abroad. Currently, 900 students study abroad. UI also has 2,300 international students.
Hoch helped to establish an international student organization to address issues affecting international students.
“We hired someone to focus on international student issues, not only immigration,” Hoch said. “We are also trying to engage them with domestic students because they don’t really add to the diversity of campus.”
In addition to the international student organization, Hoch began bachelors’ and masters’ of arts degree programs in international studies.
“There are 150 students in these programs and we hope to double,” Hoch said.
Though Hoch only spent two days at LSU, he said the faculty seems to be concerned about the faculty size.
He said LSU is doing its best under difficult funding, and the lack of state funding is the biggest cause of the faculty problem.
“I am more familiar with Big 10 schools and the funding they receive,” Hoch said. “Iowa is the same size in students but it has about 500 more faculty.”
The number of faculty helps to impact the number of classes and the size of classes, Hoch said.
“Student size, faculty size and the budget need to be balanced a little more efficiently to be effective,” Hoch said. “This is something the state and any new provost will have to confront.”
Hoch said any provost needs to be excited about the university’s programs.
“[That excitement] will enhance the quality of the programs and research at LSU,” Hoch said.