Scholar of church-related higher education named provost

Mon, March 16, 2009 |

A nationally recognized authority on church-related higher education with a long association with Valparaiso University has been named the institution's provost and vice president for academic affairs effective July 1.

The appointment of Dr. Mark R. Schwehn was announced today (Monday, March 16) by University President Mark A. Heckler. Dr. Schwehn will replace Dr. Roy Austensen, who is retiring after holding the office since 1992 and will return to full-time teaching following a year's leave of absence.

A Valpo graduate, Dr. Schwehn has been a member of the faculty since 1983 and served as dean of Christ College, the University's interdisciplinary honors college, from 1990 to 2003. He is author of Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America and editor of three additional books, including Everyone a Teacher. His articles on faith-based education have been published in numerous publications and he has been invited to speak at institutions and associations throughout the United States.

During the 2005-06 academic year, Dr. Schwehn was resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John's (Minn.) University. He served on the editorial board of the journal of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Liberal Education, and on the Board of Directors of the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life.

Dr. Schwehn holds a doctor of philosophy degree in history and humanities from Stanford University where his doctoral dissertation won the 1978 Allan Nevins Prize, awarded annually by the Society of American Historians to the most distinguished Ph.D. thesis in the field of American History. He earned a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago where he later was an assistant professor of humanities before joining the Valparaiso faculty. He received Valparaiso's Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 2007 and was named to the Dickmeyer Professorship in Christian Higher Education in 2008.

He was a driving force in creation of the Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, a national network of 90 church-related colleges and universities with a postdoctoral fellow program that prepares new teachers for faith-based institutions of higher education. He will continue to serve as project director for the Lilly Fellows Program and as professor of humanities.

President Heckler said Dr. Schwehn was selected following an extensive national search that brought four finalists to campus for a series of two-day visits.

"It was a strong field of finalists and each was capable of providing solid leadership, but Mark Schwehn clearly emerged as the candidate of choice," President Heckler said.

"One priority in the selection process was to identify a leader with exceptionally strong academic credentials, one who could serve as the standard bearer for teaching and scholarship on campus. Dr. Schwehn meets this criterion unquestionably.

"In addition, he knows Valparaiso University deeply and has a thorough understanding of what it means to be a Lutheran institution of higher education. In fact, as the son of a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor, a Valpo graduate, and a scholar of church-related higher education, he brings a valuable perspective to our thinking about what it will mean to be a Lutheran university in the decades ahead."

Dr. Schwehn said his new responsibilities represent a culmination of his professional development in church-related higher education.

"When this opportunity presented itself, I felt I might have the right leadership gifts and that this was the right place and the right time," he said. "I view strengthening the quality of the academic and intellectual life of campus as priority number 1. While we need to embrace change, we must maintain high academic standards. Also, the dynamic of serving in an institution with a strong Lutheran heritage appeals to me a great deal."

Dr. Schwehn said he is committed to Valparaiso's philosophy of education that is built around a distinctive integration of the liberal arts and professional education.

"We need this integration to prepare students for both their lives and their livelihoods now more than ever," he said, "and we haven't yet realized all the potential for cross-curricular learning. Valparaiso is the size where this can be done seamlessly and relatively quickly in response to new opportunities."

President Heckler said Dr. Schwehn would begin to serve immediately as a special assistant to the president, both to aid in his transition to the role of provost and to guide several projects initiated by the president, who took office as the University's 18th president last summer.

"One thing that makes this opportunity especially exciting," Dr. Schwehn said, "is becoming part of an outstanding leadership team led by President Heckler. The energy and enthusiasm he has created on campus is contagious and I look forward to working with him."