Columbus State hires new provost, executive VP for academic affairs

Columbus State University has hired its second-in-command, filling a 1 1/2-year-old vacancy.

Deborah Bordelon, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Governors State University in Illinois, will lead CSU’s academic activities, CSU announced Monday. She will start her position as CSU’s provost and executive vice president in February.

According to the news release, Bordelon has been at Governors State since 2008, first serving as dean of their College of Education before being appointed provost in 2013. She has held teaching and administrative posts at Nicholls State University and Xavier University in Louisiana. She earned a doctorate in special education, a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, all from the University of New Orleans.

CSU president Chris Markwood said in the news release, “I am very excited about Dr. Bordelon joining this team and am delighted she shares a passion for high-impact educational practices, inclusiveness, creativity and servant leadership.”

Bordelon will take over from Tina Butcher, who has been serving as CSU’s interim provost for about 18 months. She will return to her previous position as associate provost for undergraduate education.

“We have been in good hands with Dr. Butcher leading our academic affairs enterprise while we searched for a permanent provost who was just the right fit for us going forward,” Markwood said.

The vacancy was created in June 2016, when Tom Hackett announced in a campus-wide email he would return to the doctoral and leadership programs in CSU’s College of Education and Health Professions. He said he accepted Markwood’s request to “create a more robust partnership” between the university and the Muscogee County School District. Hackett now is CSU’s executive director of P-12/University Partnerships.

During a Q&A with the Ledger-Enquirer in August, Markwood acknowledged the provost search has been frustrating.

“Yes, but we are looking for just the right person,” Markwood said then. “We don’t want to just fill it. I’ve had the privilege of serving as a provost twice (at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and University of Wisconsin-Superior). It’s not an easy job.”

CSU’s search committee restarted the search after its initial finalists proved to be insufficient.

“We assessed each one and believed that the right fit was still out there,” Markwood said in August. “Nothing individually wrong with any of the candidates. Many have landed in positions that are good fits for them. But we were looking for that person for us that meets our expectations, has the skills sets, the experience. We are transitioning the provost job from what was just a vice president to a true No. 2, somebody who will really be my partner in sort of serving as the chief operating officer and work to be the lead on institution-wide initiatives and multi-divisional collaboration.”

Bordelon has more than 30 publications or grants to her credit, the news release says. She is a member of the Hall of Fame in the College of Education and Human Development at University of New Orleans, received Top Ten Researchers and Grant Recipients Recognition at Nicholls State University and was named “Excellence in Praxis” Service Learning Faculty Award at Xavier University of Louisiana. She has been through the Executive Leadership Academy at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Harvard Graduate School of Education Institute for Management and Leadership in Education, and the American Council on Education, Office of Women in Higher Education 77th National Leadership Forum on Women Administrators.

“It is a great honor to be selected as provost and executive vice president at Columbus State University,” Bordelon said in the news release. “I look forward to joining President Markwood and the excellent administrative team at CSU. It was evident during my campus visit how consistent and strong the commitment to student success and academic excellence is across the university. I am excited to have the opportunity to work closely with the faculty, staff, students and community to promote the high quality educational opportunities at CSU.”

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Columbus State hires new provost, executive VP for academic affairs."