VERITAS just caught up with Scott W.M. Burrus, PhD, who was recently named Northcentral University’s Provost and Chief Academic Officer.
Congratulations on your new appointment! And let’s start with the question that everyone is wondering, but afraid to ask: What changes can we expect (if any), and how are we looking with our upcoming HLC Visit (October 8-10) rapidly approaching?
Thank you very much for the congratulations. It is humbling to serve Northcentral University at this time, and I am grateful to have our Board, Deans’ and President and CEO’s confidence.
Before our Comprehensive Site Visit by the Higher Learning Commission, instead of focusing on change, the entire University will be engaged in preparation for the visit. Everyone will see communication and information from Northcentral’s leadership team as together we discuss our Mission, Vision and Values, and those essential characteristics that make us special, including our One-to-One faculty-led learning model, no residency requirements, and ongoing commitment to continuous improvement.
What’s your personal vision for NCU and what kind of leadership style do you hope to institute?
Most importantly, I believe we have a mandate to provide excellent educational opportunities and programs that facilitate our students’ ability to reach their personal and professional purpose. My vision for each of us at Northcentral is that we dedicate ourselves to truly living out Northcentral’s Mission each day by providing learning opportunities for professionals eager to enter the next phase of their personal and professional lives.
We have a unique opportunity to combine centuries-old principles of mentorship with best practices found in applied experiential learning through the gift of Internet-based technology. The result is providing our students a deeply enriched opportunity to engage in relevant, problem-based, project and service-oriented, and place-located learning without the need to relocate or otherwise disrupt their lives or career trajectory. In other words, Northcentral students are able to apply their course material to their own location-based learning laboratory, while collaborating with expert faculty currently practicing in the field. Ultimately, our Doctoral students are afforded the opportunity to inform and advance their field in newly informative ways.
Over the past year, our academic leadership team and I have established a mutual respect that is foundational to how we lead. Since we know that everyone in the University serves the same Mission, our commitment to collaboration extends to marketing, finance, financial aid, IT, academic advising and enrollment. With this foundation, I am confident our leadership team will only become stronger over the years.
Where do you see our University in the next five years?
By 2017, Northcentral University will continue to be a dynamic educational environment dedicated to excellence and innovation in everything we do. Likely, our students will see additional program offerings and continued access to world-class faculty. As a global provider of higher education, students and faculty will experience access to an international community of scholars dedicated to academic achievement and application of knowledge toward the betterment of society. We are committed to providing tools that increase faculty-student interaction, and improving how our University community engages with each other. I look forward to everyone’s experience with the Northcentral to come.
As so elegantly stated in our Vision statement, I look forward to what the future holds for our University:
Northcentral University is a premier online graduate university and a global leader in providing unprecedented access to U.S. regionally accredited higher education.
You referenced John of Salisbury and the famous quote, “standing on the shoulders of giants” when you were formally introduced in your new position here at our recent live Webcast. Who are your personal heroes – notable thinkers who have helped to shape your vision?
My personal heroes are too many to mention for this article. Personally and professionally, I have found that those they follow, and those they lead define great leaders. To that end, I have intentionally sought out mentors. Sometimes we might never meet our mentors, except in books. That said, relevant to our work at Northcentral University, and the application of knowledge, I believe we follow in the tradition of John Dewey and David Kolb, both of whom are seminal theorists in experiential learning. In addition, in the field of education, Jonathon Kozol is someone I’ve always admired; while more recently as directly relevant to our environment, I find the writing of Anya Kamenetz very interesting.