About the Provost's Office


jimmayHeaded by James M. May, Provost and Dean of the College and Professor of Classics , the office is a crossroads for faculty and administration. Faculty appointments, technology needs, diversity initiatives, tenure and promotion cases, academic resources, and other issues of campus-wide significance are based in the Provost's Office.

The Provost's office is located in Room 220 of the Administration Building. The office is staffed during regular business hours throughout the academic year and the summer. At other times, voice mail is available at 507-786-3004.

Theme for the 2010-2011 Academic Year Announced

The college theme for the 2010-2011 academic year will be "Liberal Learning and Religion."  2010-11 marks the centennial of the St. Olaf Religion Department, and this occasion will provide a fitting opportunity for us to contemplate the relationship between liberal learning and religion in detail.  The following excerpts are taken from the proposal of the planning committee:

"Religion was the cantus firmus of the founders of the college when they planned a school associated with a Lutheran Church body.  The Christian religion has been a subject of study from the outset, and it was organized as a department in the years 1910 to 1911. Since then the scope of topics and the range of approaches has expanded over the decades.  Now the religion department (like the college more generally) includes members of several Christian denominations and of other religions; it offers courses in the major world traditions on and off campus because we are in a world of religious plurality.  The department, however, has never been a solo performance; religion is studied throughout the curriculum as a component of culture, as a factor in ethics, as an element of visual arts or in music.  Religions are also practiced daily at St. Olaf: in chapel, in student led groups, by Lutherans, by spiritual seekers, by Muslims and others.  Our St. Olaf mission statement highlights these multiple locations and roles for religion on campus.  The liberal arts, the global perspective and the Christian gospel represent more than three segments of our work here; the three interact so that St. Olaf’s curriculum and activities show how these three influence each other. This means that the college’s commitment to theological literacy for students here is linked to the expectation that they will be responsible citizens of the world."

The aim of the organizers is to arrange a series of events that, among other things, will:

Explore the past, present, and future of the study of religion in our department and in the academy in the United States;

Recognize and foster the religious diversity on campus and in the larger cultural context of our nation and the world, especially given our international studies programs and global perspective commitments;

Provide opportunities to recognize and explore the contributions of other departments, programs, and student groups on campus in the study and practice of religions on campus;

Organize reunions and symposia to bring our alumni who are at work both in the study of religion and in churches or other religious organizations;

Bring on campus representatives from other similar colleges and religion departments as well as other national scholars for discussions about both the presence of religion on campuses and the study of religion there.

If you have further ideas about the theme, or would like to participate in some fashion, please contact a member of the planning committee:  Bill Poehlmann, chair; DeAne Lagerquist; Eric Lund; Jason Ripley; Joe Shaw.