FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arlene Cash, the dean and associate vice chancellor for enrollment services at the University of Arkansas has been promoted to the new position of associate provost for academic outreach in the Office of the Provost, effective Jan. 1, 2003.

The associate provost will report to and work directly with Provost Bob Smith and serve as a coordinator of initiatives and projects as they relate to the recruitment and retention of undergraduate students. The associate provost will also work closely with the staff of academic affairs, deans and other administrators, faculty and students, and assist in the development of programs, projects and policies as they relate to the University’s academic outreach endeavors.

Examples of such projects include the development of course and program articulation with Arkansas and neighboring states’ two-year colleges and establishing relationships with international embassies and education offices to encourage the application and admission of both American and international students living abroad.

Provost Bob Smith said, "Arlene is extremely well suited to be the first associate provost for academic outreach because of her extraordinary interpersonal skills and higher education insights. When these attributes are coupled with the enrollment services experiences she has amassed at the University of Arkansas, I anticipate that she will be highly successful in her new responsibilities. I’m looking forward to working closely with her."

Additional duties of the associate provost include:

• serving as liaison for relationships between the provost office and K-12 and community college systems;
• supporting the Office of the Provost in collaboration with student affairs in the development and establishment of off-campus student advising initiatives;
• assisting with elements of the Diversity Task Force assigned to academic affairs; and
• assisting the work of the 2010 Commission, including outreach and the preparation of biennial reports.

Smith said, "The associate provost position was primarily created as a result of recent discussions within the University relative to meeting our goal of having 22,500 students enrolled by 2010. Thus, the high priority the associate provost will bring to partnerships among the U of A and other educational institutions in the state and most especially community colleges.

"It is also important that the University of Arkansas, namely the Office of the Provost, have a greater presence at meetings of educational bodies within the state such as the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. The associate provost will help us insure such a presence. Finally, there are a series of projects, from the work of the 2010 Commission to K-12 partnerships to diversity initiatives where our office needs direct representation and assistance and this new position will help us meet these needs."

Ed Schroeder, director of financial aid at the University of Arkansas, has been appointed to serve as interim director of admissions along with his current responsibilities. He will report to Smith until a new director of admissions is hired. The former position of associate vice chancellor for enrollment services and dean of enrollment services will be eliminated. The registrar’s office, the third major unit in enrollment services, will report to Nancy Talburt, vice provost for academic affairs, effective Jan. 1, 2003.

Prior to coming to the University of Arkansas in 1998, Cash served as the associate dean and director of admissions at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 1993. Cash earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and English from Keuka College in Keuka Park, N.Y., and a master’s in philosophy from Kent State University.

Schroeder, who has been at the University of Arkansas since January 2001, was formerly the director of financial aid for Concordia University in Wisconsin serving approximately 5,100 students. Prior to that, he was the director of financial aid for Concordia College in Michigan. Schroeder is an alumnus of the U of A having received his master’s of mathematics in 1970. His undergraduate degree in education is from Concordia College in Nebraska.

Nancy Talburt is vice provost for academic affairs and director of summer sessions. She has held a number of administrative positions at the University with concurrent rank of Professor of English, and first came to the U of A in 1969 following a year of postdoctoral study at Harvard and MIT. Her doctorate is in English from the U of A, and her current research is on crime and mystery fiction.