The search continues for a new provost and executive vice chancellor of academic affairs. Two of the three forums this week have been held, and the latest candidate hosted is Andrea Golato.  

According to the job description posted on the CU Careers website, the provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs is the chief academic officer in charge of providing leadership and strategic direction for all academic programs and initiatives. The position is being paid an annual salary of $240,000 to $290,000.  

Golato has served as the dean of The Graduate College at Texas State University since 2013. During her time at TXST, she has worked with over 100 degree programs and served on many leadership committees for both graduate and undergraduate students. She has a Ph. D. in German applied linguistics from University of Texas, Austin. 

Golato said that UCCS is similar to TXST because of the large populations of first-generation and minority students, adding that inclusion and excellence go hand in hand. 

“I really like [serving] those communities because, particularly with first-generation students, you … provide access to the transformative experience that education really is,” Golato said. “It would be a privilege to work with you to change the lives of students.” 

At TXST, Golato has worked to increase enrollment, including surveying graduate students and faculty to identify certain needs, interests or resources for students. After compiling the information, she led an initiative of 90 online workshops based on her findings. Some of these workshops included lessons for past graduate students.  

If she were to become provost, Golato would use a similar strategy, taking stock of what is happening before deciding on a systemic approach to tackle enrollment and retention. 

“Based on that, together with deans, others and students, I would then want to work on relevant activities. So, be that, when we are looking at degree progression, are all students of all groups moving forward the same or are there differences? Are there already support structures in place?” Golato said. 

At TXST, Golato said she helped the university become an R1 institution by lobbying for external grant funding for graduate students. She said that graduate students seek an average of $1 million of external funding throughout the year, adding that the initiative became so successful that it started at the undergraduate level as well. 

Since UCCS is an R2 institution, Golato said she would look at the research infrastructure and see what external grants are out there, reduce any red tape barriers and see if there is funding available through indirect costs that could be used to promote collaborative research. 

For mental health and wellbeing, Golato said it’s key to identify ways to tackle stress on campus. If she becomes provost, she is interested in implementing a similar program to one at TXST that lets staff members take up to 2.5 hours a week to participate in paid wellness activities.  

To improve campus mental health and wellness, Golato helped host a running activity for a few years that let any student, staff or faculty member within The Graduate College sign up for local races that were connected to the university against her and an associate dean, who was a former marathon runner.  

People who signed up received a shirt, and if people showed up on race day with the shirt, she put the equivalent of the entry fee for the race into a student scholarship account that funded graduate student conference travel. 

“It was a wonderful activity because people were participating in wellness activities. It also created, much to my surprise, quite a bit of a buzz when suddenly 20 people with the same shirt on appeared in these local races. So, it also became a good advertising and fundraising activity,” Golato said.  

The full forum is available on the UCCSLive YouTube channel. The search committee is accepting feedback forms for each candidate. The forms are due on Nov. 19 by 5 p.m. and will inform the committee’s decision.   

The final forum will be on Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. in UC302 or via livestream for candidate Lora Billings. 

This article is part of a series for the provost candidate forums. Click here for the previous article. 

Andrea Golato. Photo courtesy of Texas State University.