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USF Names Wilcox New Provost

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By ADAM EMERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2007

Updated: 11/07/2007 04:53 pm

TAMPA - Ralph Wilcox, the University of South Florida vice provost who has increasingly become the public face of the school's policy efforts, was named provost today.

Ralph Wilcox

USF President Judy Genshaft announced the move two days after her second-in-command, Renu Khator, officially took the job as president and chancellor of the University of Houston system.

Wilcox takes over the job of running the day-to-day operations of university system that enrolls 45,000 students on four campuses.

The appointment will take effect in January and will run at least 2½ years. A USF committee will conduct a national search for a provost after the 2009-2010 academic year.

"While faced with significant budget challenges, we have a bold vision and an excellent faculty with whom I look forward to working …," Wilcox said in a written statement today.

Wilcox has been on the faculties and administration of the University of Houston, the University of Memphis in Tennessee and Hofstra University in Long Island, New York. He holds degrees from the University of Alberta, Canada, Washington State University and the University of Exeter, United Kingdom.

Wilcox had an auspicious, if not uneasy, start as an administrator at USF in 2002. Genshaft picked him to lead temporarily the university's St. Petersburg campus after she forced out its popular chief executive then, Bill Heller.

Wilcox had spent a year shadowing Genshaft then as a fellow in the American Council on Education's leadership training program. He was Genshaft's immediate, and only, choice to replace Heller, whose ouster had angered St. Petersburg faculty distrustful of the administration's decisions.

Wilcox, however, had charmed the faculty within days. A native of England, he assured the campus that he would support its move toward increased independence within the USF system during his interim appointment.

Ever since then, he has climbed steadily up the ranks of the administration. He was named professor and vice provost at USF in 2003.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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