July 15, 2004
Don S. Rice named associate provost
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Don S. Rice, associate dean for budget, personnel and research in Southern Illinois University Carbondale's College of Liberal Arts, has been named the University's associate provost for academic administration, a position that requires ratification by the SIU Board of Trustees.
Rice will assume his new duties, which include oversight of faculty hiring and personnel decisions, Aug. 1. He replaces James R. Staub, who resigned in 2003 to become associate provost at the University of Montana.
"We are pleased to announce this appointment. Dr. Rice was selected from a very strong national pool of applicants," said Provost and Vice Chancellor John M. Dunn.
"Don knows this campus and is highly respected here, has a successful administrative background and is nationally recognized as a scholar with an impressive research record."
Rice, an anthropologist whose work has focused on early cultures of Mesoamerica and South America, came to SIUC in 1991 to head the University's nationally renowned Center for Archaeological Investigations, where he is a senior research archaeologist. His duties there included staff recruitment and retention, budgeting and reporting, and research proposal development and funding.
He moved to his current position in SIUC's largest college in 1999. As associate dean, he assisted in allocating funds among the various departments, hired and managed faculty and staff, reviewed and processed grant proposals, and assisted in the development of new funding initiatives and programs.
Rice said he welcomes the opportunity to maintain "institutional memory" within the provost's office, particularly in terms of budget management and personnel.
"While my tenure at SIUC is little more than a decade long, I believe my familiarity with the University and my work as an associate dean will benefit the provost," he said.
"Although there will be a learning curve for anyone taking this position, I hope my experiences will make that curve less steep."
Rice's professional memberships include the American Anthropological Association, the American Society for Ethnohistory and Sigma Xi.
He is a two-degree graduate of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., earning a bachelor's in 1969 and a master's in 1972. He completed his doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in 1976.