[A look at the first year of Academic Vice President and alumna Patricia O’Connell Killen, Ph.D.]
Q: What do you want people to think of first when they think about Gonzaga today?
A: I want them to think about a university deeply rooted in its Jesuit, Catholic and humanist values, a university that supports the development of whole persons who fearlessly engage big questions and problems and, with their faculty, bring the richness of all academic disciplines and professions to addressing those problems. I want people to think of Gonzaga as a place that helps students develop the capacities of mind, the imaginations and the courage to be the leaders the world needs for the 22nd century.
Q: What are some things you have learned about Gonzaga in your first year as AVP?
A: The incredible commitment of faculty and staff to the mission of the University and their willingness to extend themselves on behalf of students is an invaluable asset. Gonzaga has excellent faculty who work closely with students – from advising, to shared research projects, to internships and other kinds of experiential learning that are community based – everything about the place is permeated with its Jesuit, Catholic, humanist heritage.
Q: How are you approaching your second year at Gonzaga?
A: My primary goal is to continue to learn about the people and programs that make up the university because my work is to lead on behalf of the students and faculty in these programs. My second goal is to work with my other executive-level colleagues in addressing the many challenges higher education faces today so that we can continue to keep Gonzaga a strong university in the Jesuit tradition.
Q: In your address to faculty in August, you set as a goal “articulating the distinctive excellence of Gonzaga for ourselves, for our constituencies, and for the larger society.” Do you feel you and the faculty have made progress or achieved this goal?
A: In nearly every meeting I’ve had with departments I have asked faculty to tell me about their distinctive excellence. I think we’ve made progress in beginning to identify that excellence more fully, both within departments and in larger faculty conversations related to accreditation and core curriculum review. We will continue to work on this project into the coming years.
Q: How is Gonzaga different from when you attended as a student? How is it the same?
A: Gonzaga is much larger than when I was here as an undergraduate and its mission is carried out to a greater extent by the lay collaborators of the Jesuits. The university is the same in its consistent care for students as whole persons; so too is the deep conviction that hard work, be it in the laboratory, be it in the music practice room, be it in any kind of setting — hard intellectual work is a privilege and a pleasure and a promise for contributing to the world.
Q: What are you most proud of in your first year as AVP?
A: Coming to know the people who are Gonzaga. I know the names of many more faculty and staff than I did last August, but I have many more people to meet and come to know. I also am proud of being able to work with the cabinet and a very fine council of academic deans.
Q: What are some current faculty projects (books, research, other) that you are excited about?
A: I am not on top of all the creative work that Gonzaga faculty are doing but part of what I find so impressive when I do hear about it is the array of projects: from books on qualitative methodologies and social research, to student- faculty research projects in Africa, to Sarah Melendy’s work helping victims of fraud through forensic accounting (the Justice for Fraud Victims Project in the Master of Accountancy program), to the creative arts of pottery and painting and music, and so much more. Gonzaga’s faculty are engaged in all kinds of scholarly and professional areas of research and creativity.
Q: Provide a brief update on Core curriculum revision.
A: The Core Curriculum Committee has released to the faculty two models for a revised core that will be taken by a team to a summer AAC&U workshop. The major project for core revision in the fall will be faculty-wide conversation on the two core models and the proposed student learning outcomes for the revised core. The review and revision process is moving along appropriately. It is very important for a faculty to engage in reflection and assessment of its core curriculum on an ongoing basis because the core curriculum is one of the major ways that a university’s academic program embodies the institution’s mission and heritage.
Q: What are some needs of the academic sector at Gonzaga?
A: We need support for equipment, be it a musical instrument endowment fund or equipment for scientific laboratories. We need support for student-faculty research and creative projects of all kinds. We need support to expand faculty development and training, not only for teaching but also for faculty who take on service to the university as program and department chairs. All these forms of support will help Gonzaga take truly excellent programs to the next level. This support will increase opportunities for our students – both directly and by helping to sustain a vital faculty.
Q: What do you hope Gonzaga will do better in next year from your AVP perspective?
A: I hope next year, especially in light of conversation about the proposals for revision of the core, we will do better at finding time for faculty to thoughtfully engage each other in conversation across disciplinary lines. I also hope that next year we will have enhanced the ways we welcome and support new faculty who have come to join us in our shared work of educating our students.
Q: What have you been doing in your spare time?
A: I just finished reading James Martin’s The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything which is a creative effort at making the Ignatian way of thinking and living more widely available. And, I’m enjoying watching the plants come up in the beds around my house during my first spring back here in Spokane.