UCSD theater professor and head of stage management Steven Adler was announced as the new provost of Earl Warren College on April 8. Adler’s appointment will be effective July 1.
Adler has been a faculty member of the theater and dance department since 1987 and currently serves as the department’s vice chair. During his tenure at UCSD, he has served on a variety of university committees, including the advisory committee on undergraduate education and the committee on educational policy.
“Professor Adler’s leadership and extraordinary commitment to undergraduate education will make a real difference at Warren College,” said Acting Chancellor Marsha A. Chandler in an April 8 statement. “I am enormously pleased that someone with Steve’s outstanding qualifications and academic record has accepted this important position.”
Adler will replace current Warren Provost David K. Jordan, a professor of anthropology who has served as provost for the past ten years. Jordan will retire from the position on June 30.
“I think to have a provost from the theater department actually raises the visibility of the arts and that means it’s raising the sense among expected students and continuing students of a range of majors and training and minors that they don’t necessarily think about,” Jordan said. “I think that’s a very positive thing.”
Revelle College provost and Warren provost search committee member Dan Wulbert echoed the sentiment.
“The university and Warren College have many engineering students, and I think there’s something very nice about having another discipline represented,” Wulbert said.
In accepting the position, Adler said that he will work to understand the way Warren College works and will not be coming in “with an agenda for change for the sake of change.”
“My mission is to provide the best academic support for the college possible,” Adler said.
In his 17 years at the university, Adler has worked with both undergraduate and graduate students. His enjoyment of working with undergraduates led to his interest in the provost position, he said.
“A significant amount of pleasure came from working with the undergraduates, and I was looking for a bigger canvas to paint on … and I think the provost job afforded me that opportunity,” Adler said.
Adler’s experiences in stage management include several national tours and Broadway productions such as “Dance a Little Closer,” “Camelot,” and the Tony Award-winning “Big River.” He has also served as production stage manager for several musicals at the La Jolla Playhouse.
“[Adler’s] just an incredibly bright and outgoing guy who’s done wonderful things academically in the department of theater and dance and in stage management,” said Mark Appelbaum, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education and chair of the Warren College provost search committee. “Steve has a way of working with students that’s very good.”
According to Appelbaum, a campuswide call for provost nominations generated a list of approximately 50 names, of which about five were finally reviewed by the search committee. Candidates were judged according to their administrative experience, quality of research, eagerness for the job and vision for Warren College. Acting Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs David Miller reviewed the final candidates and made the selection.
