Rick Haye

After a decade as Marshall’s provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, Gayle Ormiston announced Tuesday he will step down from his position at the conclusion of the academic year. Ormiston said he looks forward to remaining at Marshall as a member of the philosophy faculty.

Ormiston noted while his tenure as provost was longer than the average time in that position, the job is demanding and requires a constant readiness for unexpected issues.

“I mean the job is built on challenges,” Ormiston said. “You have to be, at least my understanding of the job, is I had to be willing to accept those challenges and to accept the criticisms, accept the difficulty of the decisions that have to be made.”

In a letter to the Marshall University community, President Jerry Gilbert praised Ormiston’s character and accomplishments during his time at Marshall.

“While I know Gayle is looking forward to a new phase of his life and the experiences that will come with re-entering the classroom, I will miss his vision and leadership at the administrative level,” Gilbert said in his letter. “He has certainly raised the stature of Marshall’s academic portfolio and student support services during his tenure.”

Under Ormiston’s supervision, the Higher Learning Commission reaffirmed Marshall’s accreditation in 2015 and chose Marshall to take part in an alternative accreditation process, which included testing learning outcomes.

Gilbert praised the provost’s leadership and diligence, but Ormiston said all of his accomplishments at Marshall were the result of collective efforts.

“I don’t think I have any particular individual accomplishments,” Ormiston said. “I think that the big accomplishments during my time as provost were always collaborative accomplishments.”

Ormiston said working with Marshall’s faculty, staff and administration was the best part of his job as provost and said he thinks students should know they’re receiving an excellent education at Marshall.

“One of the things that became very clear to me early on is that Marshall is a very good institution,” Ormiston said. “It’s a very well-run, academically well-prepared institution. It has great faculty, which demonstrate their excellence on a daily basis in the classroom and do that again through publications and research grants and so on.

Gilbert said Ormiston added a valuable perspective to Marshall’s administration and he hopes his time as a member of Marshall’s faculty will be just as fulfilling.

“When I came to Marshall as president last year, Gayle was one of the first people whose counsel I sought,” Gilbert said in his letter. “I value his perspective, his intellectualism and his commitment. I wish him the very best as he wraps up his time as provost and returns to the faculty.”

As his tenure as provost concludes, Ormiston said he is eager to re-enter the classroom setting and participate in the extensive thinking and discussion that philosophy requires.

Ormiston said, “I look forward to that sort of engagement with students in the classroom or online, to see what they think about some of these more traditional philosophic issues and some of the more recent philosophical issues.”

Gilbert said the university will conduct a national search for a new provost in order to ensure a smooth transition at the end of this academic year.

Caroline Kimbro can be contacted at [email protected].