BSU PROVOST UP TO LEAD UNIV. OF RHODE ISLAND
Linda Borg

KTVB
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May 11 2009
Idaho

PROVIDENCE, RI – Sona Karentz Andrews is that rare academic leader,
someone comfortable with the considerable administrative and financial
responsibilities of a major university who hasn’t lost touch with
the professors who make the work possible.

"She brings people together," said Ralph W. Kuncl, an old friend who
is provost of the University of Rochester. "Her faculty knows she
cares deeply about their scholarship. She’s also made it possible
for her current institution to make significant changes."

Andrews, 55, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at
Boise State University, is one of three finalists for the presidency
of the University of Rhode Island, a position held for 18 years by
Robert Carothers, who is retiring

A provost wears many hats. Andrews, a geoscientist by profession,
oversees the entire academic operation at Boise State, including all
faculty hiring, academic programs and new degree programs.

But Andrews, who was born in Providence, has accomplished so much
more. During her four years at Boise State, she helped the university
double its research grant funding, recruit and retain talented staff
and add a dozen new graduate-level programs, at least half of them
in the sciences. Boise State has also bought its first-ever research
park, which the university hopes will serve as an incubator for
related technologies.

In many ways, Andrews said, URI’s aspirations are no different than
those of Boise State, Idaho’s largest educational institution, with
more than 19,500 students enrolled in eight colleges. In her letter
to URI’s presidential search committee, Andrews wrote that both
institutions want to enhance student retention, improve graduation
rates, create a more diverse environment and expand research activity.

"Sona raised the stature of the college as a research institution,"
said Boise President Robert Kustra, adding that the university began as
an undergraduate teaching college. "She made a significant difference
in the hiring of quality faculty, chairs and deans. She put a big
emphasis on scholarship and research."

But colleagues say that Andrews has never lost sight of the importance
of building relationships with individual faculty members. Kustra said
she still reads every scholarly article published by faculty members,
including papers published outside her own discipline.

"She is very likable," Kuncl said. "Put her in a room with 30 people
and she will know everyone very soon. People who meet her know that
they are meeting someone special."

Like many large public universities, Boise State struggled with
the question of how to keep students from dropping out after their
freshman year. It was Andrews who figured out that introductory math
was the stumbling block, Kustra said. Andrews sat down with the math
department and together they reorganized the way the university taught
entry-level math.

As Boise began to improve its graduate science programs, top-notch
research institutions began raiding its faculty. Kustra credits
Andrews with stopping those losses by increasing faculty salaries. In
one instance, she raised the salary levels of the entire geosciences
department, no small feat in an era of diminishing resources.

Andrews is also the point person with both the Idaho legislature and
the state’s congressional delegation, serving on state task forces
and giving testimony before legislative committees.

"All of those activities mean that Sona must be an unusual partner
with the [Boise] president," Kuncl said. "It takes an unusual amount
of trust to put those activities in the hands of a provost."

Andrews is as competitive in her personal life as she is in her
professional one. According to Kuster, Andrews just broke her
collarbone skiing and loves to mountain bike in Idaho’s rugged
terrain. She also hails from a traditional Armenian family and speaks
Armenian.

Her husband, Joseph, is an endocrinologist at the University of
Wisconsin; her son, Christopher, is in graduate school at George
Mason University and her stepdaughter is enrolled in medical school.

Andrews spent the bulk of her career at the University of Wisconsin
in Milwaukee, where she began as an associate professor of geography
in 1988 and rose to vice provost of academic affairs in 2003. She
graduated from Worcester State College in Massachusetts in 1975 and
earned her doctorate from Arizona State University in 1981.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress