scene
DeCember 1 ..
5
Campus
Retu rn i ng TO His Roots
Dr. Robert Wills
Pro vost Began Career A t Church-Related, Liberal Arts Colleges By Jim peterson n one sense Dr. Robert Wil ls, PLU's pro vost si nce J u ly, has retu r n ed to his roots. H is u ndergraduate yea rs a n d fi rst n i ne years as an educator were spent on small, l i beral a rts, c h u rch-affi l i ated col l ege cam puses. After a 1 7-year i nterlude, he has returned to that envi ronment. Wills earned his bachelor's deg ree at the College of Wooster, a 1 , 200-student Pres byterian school in O h io, i n 1 962. H is fi rst teac h i n g posi t i o n was at Witten berg, a Lutheran i nstitution in Spri ngfield, Ohio. "After n i ne years at Wittenberg, a l l my experience had been at small l i beral arts colleges," he reca lls. "I wa nted to see what a l a rger p rogram wou l d be l i ke . " So he accepted a posit i o n at the U niversity of Kentucky i n Lex i ngton. N i ne more years later, seeking a n other chal lenge, he m oved on to the even larger U n iversity of Texas at Aust i n . At each stop his career i nterests broad ened . At Wittenberg, where he began as a theatre i nstructor, he became di rector of theatre. At Kentucky he began as theatre arts depart m e nt cha i r a n d beca me dean of the College of Fine A rts. At Texas, he held a si milar post i n a la rger progra m . O n each campus, however, he sti l l taught. The next logical step was to b r i n g his skills to an even b roader acad e m i c p ro gram. At the same t i m e h is i nterest i n the s m a l l cam pus, l i be r a l a rts setti n g was bei n g renewed. "I was t h i n k i ng about a ca m p us s m a l l e n o u g h f o r serious e m p h asis on facu lty teach i ng responsi b i l ities, but large enough to s u p port a n d e ncou rage the facu lty research strengths vital to teach i n g excel lence," Wills said.
I
He was not actively see k i ng a cha nge, but he was nom i nated for the PLU provost position, and PLU fit the defi niti o n of the kind of opportun ity he had been contem plating. PLU's l ocation, w h i le not a "decid i ng" factor, was not a d rawback; h is wife, Barbara Salisbury Wills, is from Seattle and holds a Ph.D. from the U niversity of Wash ington. "This was a real surpr ise; I never expec ted to ret u r n (to the Pacific Northwest) so q u i c k l y , " s a i d D r . B a r b a ra W i l l s. "I a m delighted . " T h e W i l ls' have been ma rried for five years. They worked together as col leagues in the Col lege of Fine Arts at Texas, where she was an assoc iate professor of drama.' "We shared many i nterests," she reca ll ed. " I admi red his flexibil ity and leaders h i p style. Particu l arly, I coul d n 't h e l p but b e impressed b y h is attitude toward women." The son of a Presbyterian m i n ister, Wills consi dered the m i n i stry as a ca ree r through his undergraduate years at Woos ter while he was majoring, fi rst i n voice, then i n theatre and speech. In fact, during h i s sen i o r yea r he a p p l ied for gra nts to support his gradu ate work at either a sem i nary or the U n i versity of I l l i n o i s t h eatre prog ram . He was offered both; when the time came to make the decision, he chose theatre. Reg a rd i n g t h at c h o i ce, W j l l s Ili kes to q u ote N ew York L i v i n g T h eatre founder Julian Beck, who once said, " I chose the atre rather t h a n the synagogue because I bel i eved my chances of salvation were greater there." But the concerns that contributed to his thoughts about the m i nistry also affected his theatre p u rsu its. He had been act i ng and singing since an early age, b ut he had no i ncli nation toward professional theatre. "Rather," he sa i d , "I see t h eatre as a means of changing people's l ives, of touch-
ing people - both audience and actors to make a difference i n how they l ive." Dr. Richard Moe, dean of PLU's School of t h e Arts, met W i l ls several years ago "when I was a neophyte member" of the I nternational Council of Fine Arts Deans. "I was struck by t h i s i m p ressive dean who was obviously a leader i n this august grou p," sa i d Moe. "He was warm and cor d i a l to me - a person he had n 't met before a nd about whom he knew noth i ng." He conti nued, "It was a joyous and seren d i pitous s u r p r. ise w h e n I lear ned he was being considered for our provost position. Not only did I have g reat respect for him personally, it is hig hly u n usual for an aca demic CEO to come out of the arts." It seems natu ra l for a former theatre professional l i ke W i l ls, who has written 1 0 produced performa nce pieces and di rect ed 90 p lays, to com ment that he is " role oriented" rather than "goal-oriented ." Nev ertheless he i ntrod uced th ree broad goals to the PLU faculty at thei r September fa l l conference: * "Growth toward even greater academ i c exce l l e nce, t h o u g h we are b u i l d i ng on considerable strength; * "I ncreasing d iversity - particula rly as that relates to women a nd eth nic mi nori ties - i n a n effort to make t h e u n i versity more s i m i l a r to the world in which it exists; and * "Increasing structure and form; many of the systems that help ma nage t h i ngs su rvive from much ea rlier days and don't serve the contem pora ry u niversity as well as they cou ld." Rather than i m posing his w i l l from the top, W i l ls wants to know what others want
Continued on page 6
,