Vanderbilt University Provost Richard McCarty (photo by Daniel Dubois)
VUMC Reporter profile: Provost McCarty helps steer VU with calm hand
Richard McCarty may be Vanderbilt's Provost and the chief academic officer of the University, but he doesn't spend all of his time focusing on weighty issues.
Once a week from August through November, McCarty ends his workday eating and meeting with his Vanderbilt Visions group, made up of 18 first-year undergraduate students. The volunteer activity is a piece of his job close to his heart. On a balmy night last October McCarty covered a lot of territory at Vanderbilt's Commons with the brand new college students.
He nurtured. He consoled. He teased. And he doled out both culinary reviews: (Sweet CeCes frozen yogurt is delicious) and fashion advice: (there's no need for women to wear UGG (sheepskin) boots during Nashville's typically mild winters). An avid Van Morrison fan, he also discussed recent Nashville concerts with his group. All in about an hour.
McCarty's Visions group is one of 90 led by a volunteer University leader or faculty member, including Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos, and an upperclass peer mentor. McCarty said spending time with the undergraduates is quite a change from his workday, where he leads the academic deans of the University developing and executing Vanderbilt's core mission and strategic academic plan.
University Provost Richard McCarty relishes his time with his Vanderbilt Visions group of first-year students. Here he talks with Ashley Bekerman, the group’s peer mentor, during a dinner at McCarty’s house last fall. (photo by Susan Urmy)
“He's just a big teddy bear. He really is,” said Ashley Bekerman, the peer mentor who was paired with McCarty in their Visions group. “He makes us feel so comfortable. He catches us off guard with all he knows about what's going on around campus. He'll ask us if we went to a concert or something, something we didn't even know he knew about. At first, I think everyone was a little intimidated because he's the provost, but pretty soon it was obvious there wasn't a wall at all.”
Bekerman, a fourth-year civil engineering major from Cooper City, Fla., said that McCarty takes his group seriously, and didn't even let a meeting in California keep him from participating in one of their groups.
“Not only did he call in, but he sent us all pictures of where he was standing, so we could see the view. He was at a provost's conference, with a beautiful sunset, and he said 'I really wish I could be there with you guys right now,'” she said, laughing.
McCarty, 63, and Bekerman also met briefly each week to plan and share any observations about the first-year students. “We might notice that one person seemed to be struggling and that one was quiet and could be homesick,” she said. “He really cares and wants to make sure that everyone is accounted for.”
The concept of a longer first-year orientation came about six years ago during a time of “severe challenge,” McCarty said. “We had some very unpleasant events on campus, including a shooting in one of our dorms. There seemed to be a lack of respect for our community creed. Students were partying a bit excessively and there were a lot of visits to Dr. (Corey) Slovis' emergency room. One of the ideas that came about (from students on the task force) is 'what if we changed the way we orient students?'”
McCarty addresses library staff members during a recent meeting. As Provost, he has responsibility for academic programs across the University. (photo by John Russell)
At that time, like at most universities, orientation took place in August, between Move-in Saturday and the beginning of classes on Wednesday.
“The existing group of students on campus who worked on orientation completely changed their entire mode of operation to make this (longer orientation period) work. It was an incredibly courageous and far-sighted thing for them to do,” McCarty said.
Each Visions group has students from every undergraduate school, if possible, as well as a balance of gender and geography. “We talk about honor and integrity and adjustment to college life. Vanderbilt Visions reduces the scale of the University down to a very manageable level for our students,” he said.
McCarty, an avid music lover, took the stage last year with Steve Smartt and Soul Incision during Employee Celebration. (photo by Steve Green)
The group of faculty members participating in Vanderbilt Visions also includes Medical Center faculty. The groups have a common reading — this year it was “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson — and meet to discuss. They attend a lecture together in September and have a “Conversation with the Chancellor” at the end of the fall semester. McCarty invited his group to his home for dinner in November.
A singular expectation
McCarty's appreciation of a good education dates back to his childhood. He and his younger brother, Robert, were raised by working-class parents in Portsmouth, Va., and he was the first person in his family to attend college.
“My mother, Helen, played a significant role in creating that singular expectation for me,” he said.
Portsmouth was strictly segregated, McCarty said, and the school system wasn't integrated until he was in high school. “I didn't realize at the time how limiting it was to grow up in such an environment.”
He not only earned the family's first college degree, in biology, from Old Dominion University, but also received his master's degree in zoology from there. He earned his Ph.D. in pathobiology from Johns Hopkins in 1976.
He spent two years as a research associate in pharmacology with the National Institute for Mental Health before joining the faculty at the University of Virginia in 1978. He became chair of the Department of Psychology, and remained at UVA until 1998, when he took a leave of absence to serve as executive director for Science at the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C. He helped the APA launch its “Decade of Behavior” public education campaign to bring attention to the importance of behavioral and social research.
McCarty joined the Vanderbilt faculty in July 2001 as professor of Psychology and dean of the College of Arts and Science. His teaching and research interests are in physiological and behavioral aspects of stress.
Under his direction as dean of A & S, Vanderbilt prospered in faculty recruitment, undergraduate student quality, diversity and selectivity. Graduate student enrollment and diversity increased dramatically and several new buildings were dedicated, including the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center and the renovated and expanded Buttrick Hall.
McCarty, who succeeded Zeppos as provost when Zeppos was named chancellor in 2008, is married to his high school sweetheart, Sheila. They married when he was 18 and she was 19.
“She put me through school. She put up with a lot, had scores of part-time jobs when I was in school and immediately after, and I owe her a great deal.”
The McCartys have four children — Chris, 41, who recently moved here from Seattle with his wife and four young children; Lori, 39, who lives in Charlottesville; Ryan, 34, and Patrick, 31, who just finished the nurse practitioner program at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.
The chart says it all
The 'org' chart for McCarty's job as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs looks a lot like this: McCarty's name spread widely across the top with dozens of deans, vice provosts and most University schools, offices and departments underneath. That's a slight exaggeration, but not by much.
He has responsibility for academic programs, including the Blair School of Music, College of Arts and Science, the Divinity School, the School of Engineering, the Graduate School, Law School, the Owen Graduate School of Management and Peabody College of Education and Human Development, student affairs, housing (including The Commons), admissions and financial aid, and research.
McCarty works closely with Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs. (photo by Steve Green)
The workload is manageable because McCarty believes in letting those who report to him do their jobs, without micromanagement.
“I work with a lot of really great people. We parcel out responsibility among us. No one person could keep up with all of the things we have responsibility for.”
When he came into the provost position, McCarty had already been working with many of those who now report to him.
“This has been a real advantage for me, having confidence in each of these key people and knowing them personally as well as professionally. I just can't imagine having a better group of people to work with day in and day out. I'm in learning mode just about every day.”
McCarty has monthly, standing meetings with all deans and most associate provosts and vice provosts monthly where he is briefed on major issues.
“I don't like people to be held back by having to inform me of everything they are doing. I think that says you have the wrong people in the job.”
McCarty has been instrumental in furthering the “One University” concept that is allowing Vanderbilt to be more than the sum of its parts, said Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine.
Balser and McCarty have worked together on several joint efforts, including Vanderbilt University’s unprecedented flood recovery efforts for its faculty and staff last May, and expanding ties between Australia’s University of Melbourne and Vanderbilt.
They spent several days together last March, visiting Melbourne.
“I really got to know Richard during our time together in Melbourne and during the post-flood period that was extremely difficult for so many of our faculty and staff. He demonstrates, daily, the collaborative spirit that makes Vanderbilt so unique,” Balser said.
“He sits back quietly, listens and learns all he can about a subject. He lets others have their say in a thoughtful and considerate way, and then he makes his point, which is always right on target. There are many wonderful human beings at Vanderbilt. Richard McCarty is definitely at the top of that list.”
Leading by example
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's David Raiford, M.D., senior associate dean for Faculty Affairs, attends the monthly Council of Deans meeting led by McCarty. Technically not a dean (Raiford is the designee for Balser, who is also dean of the School of Medicine), Raiford said that he has been welcomed warmly into the fold of deans.
McCarty leads the group in a civil, yet relaxed way.
“He sets the tone that enables everybody to realize we are all wearing Vanderbilt jerseys, if you will, and while our responsibilities and accountabilities may differ because of the different missions of the different schools, we really are partners in a bigger endeavor,” Raiford said. “He does that in a masterful way. He makes everyone feel included.”
Raiford said Vanderbilt has its highest number of jointly appointed faculty ever. “We are growing the collaborative spirit,” Raiford said. “The frequency and candor of the dialogue is the best I've ever seen it in my two decades here.”
Part of the credit is due to McCarty's leadership style, Raiford said.
“I'm struck by how someone who is as distinguished as he is, as a scholar and as an academic leader, is down to earth, approachable and friendly. There's a cohesive cheerleading section across the senior leadership of the University to root for the successes of the members of our community, from the most junior student to the most senior faculty member.
McCarty at home with his wife, Sheila, above left, daughter-in-law, Stacey, and her daughters Brooke, 8, left, and Janie, 6. (photo by Susan Urmy)
“Richard is comfortable in that role, in articulating the expectations that make it possible for others to be successful,” Raiford said.
The Commons
One of the great success stories at Vanderbilt is The Commons, Vanderbilt's residential living and learning community for all first-year students that was championed by then-provost Zeppos.
Beginning three years ago, each entering class lives together in the 10 “houses” of The Commons. Each house has an apartment for its resident faculty head of house, a member of the University who serves as the house's mentor, helping students create their own community. Each house is considered a neighborhood and its students come from every background, place, social setting and personal experience.
The idea is that education should not be limited to the classroom. The communal living arrangement encourages students and faculty to explore ideas and experiences beyond the classroom curriculum.
“To me one of the biggest changes that young people face is the transition from high school to college, especially when it's a highly selective university like Vanderbilt,” McCarty said. “I think the idea of having faculty live with students in a residential setting is an old-school approach to education that's been done for many years, but it's been rediscovered here in a way that's incredibly powerful if you watch it unfold day to day.
“This is a place where you can come and be challenged in and out of class, to examine your own beliefs and perhaps be open to different ways to interpret events in the world. And I think that's what a college education is all about. It's a beginning, not an end.”
The next challenge is how to take the Commons philosophy and re-imagine it for sophomores, juniors and seniors, McCarty said.
Hopefully, within the next few years there will be a similar transformation for the rest of the campus' undergraduates. Architects are currently working on plans for Kissam Quad, but the funds have not been secured to build the upperclassmen residential communities.
McCarty said that he is confident Vanderbilt is turning out young people well prepared to face the challenges that await them. Despite a grim economic and employment forecast, McCarty remains optimistic that Vanderbilt is graduating students into a world that needs them.
“I think the current group of students has changed from 10-15 years ago. They're much more outwardly directed, not nearly as focused on their own issues.
“I have a very deep belief that many of the problems our nation faces right now are going to be solved by young people coming out of college now. They are the people who are going to solve the major components of the energy problem, climate change, of poverty and health disparities. I firmly believe that,” McCarty said.