USM provost Wiesenburg returns to Marine Science faculty

University of Southern Mississippi Provost Denis Wiesenburg has resigned from his position as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. He will return to the faculty in the Department of Marine Science, effective July 1.

Southern Miss President Rodney Bennett said he had accepted Wiesenburg’s resignation.

“(I) thank him for his service not only to academic affairs but also to the University as a whole,” Bennett said, in a press release. “I wish him well as he continues to contribute to our university community.”

In November 2011, then-university President Martha Saunders asked Wiesenburg to step in as interim provost. He took on the position permanently in July 2012.

“There are a lot of aspects to the job,” Wiesenburg said. “It can be exhausting. This year with the budget cuts we’re going through it was really exhausting.”

Bennett said the university will hire an executive search firm to initiate a national search. He will assemble a screening committee to review candidates for the job with the goal of having the position filled by early January.

Taking over as interim provost in the meantime is Steven Moser, professor of music and dean of the College of Arts and Letters. He has nearly 30 years experience in teaching and administrative positions at the university and at Texas Christian University.

Moser said his role as interim provost will be to keep things moving along.

“It’s a very short appointment,” he said. “I think the greatest challenge is not to slow the momentum we have achieved — using the tools and resources we have to assist the students we have here and to continue to keep recruiting the best and brightest students to USM.”

When asked if he might be interested in the job long-term, Moser said he was involved in all the good things going on in the College of Arts and Letters.

“I have no plans to pursue (provost) further,” he said. “My president has asked me to step in, and I am doing that.”

From 1994 to 2004, Wiesenburg served as chair of the university’s Department of Marine Science based at Stennis Space Center. Then he left Southern Miss to go to the University of Alaska at Fairbanks to become dean of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

He returned to Southern Miss after six years and became vice president of research for two years, before taking the interim provost job.

Wiesenburg said he looks forward to returning to the Department of Marine Science — this time in Hattiesburg.

“We did a lot of good things when I was the department chair,” he said. “It’s a group I know well.

“Most of marine science is connected to research and I’m pretty used to running research groups and that’s something I look forward to doing again.”

Wiesenburg said having more contact with students will also be nice.

“As a provost, you only have slight contact with students,” he said. “My job as provost has mainly been to work with deans to manage programs, not deliver them.”

Wiesenburg said he’s also looking forward to working with the university’s new research vessel the Point Sur.

“The Point Sur I’ve known about for a long time,” he said. “It’s a very capable vessel. It’s (135) feet, which is a good length for the Gulf of Mexico.

“We’re pretty excited about getting it here, and I think you’ll see a lot of research being done on it.”

Wiesenburg said he had managed to accomplish a lot during his five years as an administrator. He mentioned that he thought he had cultivated an atmosphere of trust between himself and the deans below him as well as other personnel.

Wiesenburg also expanded faculty orientation to two days, when it had been reduced to just a few hours.

“This gives the faculty an opportunity to understand the expectations of the university,” he said.

Wiesenburg worked on the creation of the state’s first Center for Undergraduate Research to provide additional opportunities for students to participate in faculty-mentored research.

He developed a Student Success Initiative that began fall 2012 and continues to advance new methods for improving student retention and success.

He also established teaching forums where faculty members shared best practices with each other. These forums are held four times in the fall and four times in the spring.

Wiesenburg will enjoy some time off with his family from July 1 until he has to be back at his faculty job in mid-August.

“I’m gonna work in my garden and do a little traveling,” he said. “We’re going to Alaska to visit some friends.

“I’ll have a month and a half off this summer, and then I’ll go back to being a regular faculty member.”

At a glance

Denis Wiesenburg

• Age: 66

• Family: Wife, Jean, two grown children

• Hometown: Hattiesburg

• Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs: 2011 stepped in as interim provost, 2012 became permanent provost. Retirement effective June 30.