Provost candidate talks about challenges to education

John Pratte, a candidate for Montana State University-Northern's provost of academic affairs, spoke to the public including university faculty and staff Monday in Hensler Auditorium in Northern's Applied Technology Center.

Pratte is one of four candidates vying to replace former Provost William Rugg who retired June 30.

Elizabeth Mauch, a professor and former dean of the College of Education Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania was interviewed last week.   

A self-described "workaholic," Pratte has been a professor of physics at Arkansas State University since 2006, and was dean of the College of Science and Mathematics from 2012 to August. His resume says Pratt was associate dean of research and external engagement at Arkansas State from 2010 to 2012 and chair of the Chemistry and Physics Department from 2006 to 2010.

Pratte holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado  and a bachelor's in physics  from the University of Texas in Austin, Texas.  

Pratte said his management style does not work well when everyone agrees with him, and he is always looking for input. He added that he is always trying to be transparent and always willing to compromise.

In his PowerPoint presentation, Pratte talked about major challenges in education, how his values, skills and experiences align with Northern's mission, and how academic affairs contributes to the challenge of retaining students.

Pratte said the modern challenges in education are making education relevant for today and in coming years; bringing faculty and staff up to date on best practices; making higher education affordable; and providing for society both today and tomorrow.

"Taxpayers should be investing in us just like they invest in new roads because who is going to design the new roads?" he asked. "The people that we educate. Who is going to design the systems of tomorrow? That is the people we are educating."

Just as taxpayers invest in physical infrastructure, Pratt said, they also need to be invest in human infrastructure.

However, Pratt said, universities need to hold up their end of the bargain and produce people who will fill roles in those needed fields.

Pratt said the best education is one that goes beyond the memorization of knowledge and allows students to "get their hands dirty." He said that is one of the things he found  attractive about Northern, that they have made that part of their mission by having so many internships available to students.  

"That is not what is done everywhere," Pratt said.

He said an institution cannot be all things to all people because there is not enough money and resources to do so.

"You have to pick where can you be competitive, where can you out compete everybody else," Pratte said. "Sometimes those things that you think are minuses, might actually be turned into pluses."

Another belief he said he has is that having diverse viewpoints is important to solving common challenges. He said modern problems are not about production but solving very complex issues. Such problems, he said,  are best solved with diverse viewpoints and experiences. He said it is a belief central to his leadership style.

"I only have a certain set of experiences and a certain set of knowledge and the worst thing that can happen is when I walk into a room and say 'here is my idea for this' and the entire leadership team went 'oh, OK' I am like no, no way, there is no way I solved the problem in one shot."

Pratte said one of the first things he did when he became dean was create a Science, Mathematics Academic Resources and Tracking Center, or SMART Center, in his department. The center, he said, is used for advising and tutoring, but also includes a part-time coordinator for student clubs.

As dean, he worked with the school to help make it a global research institution and created a program to give faculty the time to do research to get funding.

"One of the things you learn as an administrator is it's like betting on horses. Invest in the people you think are going to be successful and occasionally you take chances on someone who might need to go back and retool, but if someone has a great idea, figure a way," Pratte said.

He said he also helped  come up with a program to provide funding for people who want to focus less on research and more on teaching and teaching through undergraduate fellowships.

About 10 years ago, the college was graduating about 120 to 130 students every year and now is graduating 250, he said.

Northern professor Darlene Sellers said one of Northern's niches is teacher education and asked if he agrees that to compete nationally the college needs accreditation, which costs money and resources.

Pratte said that is a good question and that people are starting to look "a little bit askew at accreditation."  He said back when he was at Kennesaw State University in Georgia he was in charge of coordination. He said it can be expensive in meeting some of the requirements.

"That is the first thing I think you need to figure out is what is the agency and is it worth having or does it bring your students any value to say, "I came from this kind of accredited program," Pratte said.