Davies chosen as international provost

The University created the new position of associate provost in response to a faculty committee led by history department chair Jeremy Adelman and Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 that suggested the creation of a new high-ranking administrative position responsible for international initiatives. The recommendation was included in the “Princeton in the World” report issued last October, which maps out plans to increase the University’s integration into the global community.

Davies will work alongside Adelman, Eisgruber and other faculty members to “develop a more complete blueprint for the expansion of international initiatives at Princeton,” Eisgruber said. She will focus on the bridge-year plan, maintaining the quality and safety of faculty-led international programs, and developing relationships with foreign universities, among other things.

Eisgruber said Davies is “superbly qualified” to serve as the new associate provost, adding that “she brings to her post a subtle understanding of the academic and teaching missions, experience in a broad range of settings and a deep commitment to the benefits of international teaching and research.”

Davies, who will leave her post as the director of international programs at the University of Iowa, said she is qualified to be the first associate provost for international initiatives because she has “always been a person who has been involved in many different aspects of internationalization.”

She has served on the board of advisers of the American Council on Education Internationalization Collaborative and will also become the secretary for the University’s new Council on International Teaching and Research, which Adelman chairs.

Davies said that, when she arrives at the University in April, she intends to do “a lot of talking with a lot of faculty and administrators to get a sense of what the [University’s] immediate needs are.”

Eisgruber said he will collaborate with Davies on various specific projects including “an examination of the principles we use to determine what fees to charge for study-abroad programs.”

Davies said she will be working on projects involving short-term faculty-led programs, in which faculty members and students conduct research in international settings. Davies will examine the quality of the trips and make sure that “all of the standard procedures to ensure safety [at] that site are in place.”

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Though safety has not been an issue with these programs in the past, Davies explained that “as we work to get more students overseas, we just want to make sure we are as mindful of those kinds of things as possible.”

Davis also said that the University’s new gap-year program, which she will help oversee, “will require a lot of research and work to make it work out well.”

The new associate provost will also work to create links between the University and foreign universities. “What will be important is to develop linkages with partner institutions that are multidimensional and viable in terms of not just being interesting to one faculty member or department,” Davies said.

While Davies will work primarily with faculty, she explained that “I do think it’s very critical to get that student voice in the process of internationalization.”

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The move toward greater internationalization should also be implemented in a manner unique to the University, Davies said. “One of the approaches Princeton wants to take is to not borrow wholesale solutions from other institutions.”