She is considered by most to be a poet and teacher, but next year Katharine Coles will also be a top administrator at the U.
As the Academic Senate president for the 2002-2003 year, Coles will represent the U’s 3,500 faculty members as she takes her seat on the U’s Executive Cabinet.
The current president, Dermatology Professor Larry Meyer, will hand over the reins of the 99-member governing board to Coles on May 7.
“It has been a very busy year but also extremely rewarding,” Meyer said. “Katie will do a great job, she’ll be busy, but she is very enthusiastic and will serve the campus well.”
Coles, who has received both a new forms project grant and a fellowship from the National Endowments for the Arts, is possibly the first poet to fill the top faculty position at the U.
She believes the humanities departments and art programs “suffer” for professors’ lack of involvement in administration.
“It can be very easy to forget or overlook the humanities and the arts, especially when they are not properly represented in administrative positions,” Coles said.
Coles pointed out that the top three positions at the U?the president and the two senior vice presidents?are all held by men with degrees in the sciences.
“They are wonderful, intelligent scientists who know deeply what the campus needs, but I’d like to see more involvement from art and humanities professors,” she said.
In fact, Coles’ main goal for the year is to bring students and faculty from different areas on campus together. But in order to do so, Coles said she would need to begin to break down walls.
“The current structure of the U actually discourages interdisciplinary work,” Coles said.
Over the last two years, Coles organized a symposium which explored connections between science and literature that received national and local media attention. It took place at the U last weekend.
“Exciting things begin to happen in the gaps when you put together people from across campus,” Coles said.
Coles has created links with the sciences through her studies of physics and her marriage with Chris Johnson, a U professor of computer science.
For the past two years, Coles has served as director of creative writing. With her positions, she has limited the number of courses she was able to teach to one per semester. As president of the senate, she will continue the smaller teaching load.
“I love to be in the classroom, but there are various ways to serve students. Whether I am in the classroom or in administrative positions, it’s all attached to the same goal of improving the quality of education at the U,” Coles said.
Meyer took over the Senate one year ago with the goal of making the faculty more activist. He feels he partially succeeded with his goal.
“Everyone is more aware of funding and the legislative process. We were kind of forced to be because of the state economic situation,” Meyer said.
When he was in Coles’ position, Meyer believed the largest issue he would tackle would be the Olympic Games disruption.
“I was actually underwhelmed by the disruption of the Games. I was impressed that it wasn’t as big of a disruption as I thought it would be,” he said. The story of the year turned out to be the 4.7 percent budget cut levied out by lawmakers, he said.
“I think the administration handled it as best as the could. It is tough to make cuts that deep.”
As former president of the Academic Senate, Meyer will serve on many boards and committees.
The first year the president elect shadows the president. The second year, the president fulfills the duties of that office and the third year presidents continue their service. “It is really a three year commitment,” he said.
During a May 6 meeting, the Academic Senate will elect the president to replace Coles next year.