New provost:
‘Towson is going places’

James F. Brennan,TU’s recently named provost and vice president for academic affairs, says he knew a good deal about the campus long before he actually set foot on it.

“Towson enjoys a fine reputation as a student-centered institution,” he said during a January 13 visit. “The university takes pride in educating students in the traditional liberal arts—critical thinking, effective communication, multicultural experiences and so on—but in a way that also emphasizes the world of work they’ll be entering upon graduation. That’s a special model at which Towson really excels.

"I think this is an institution that is really going places."

Brennan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville, said he’d also heard about President Robert L. Caret and his successes at San Jose State University. “We hadn’t met, but I knew he was a person of superlative vision and energy,” he says. “All of that was confirmed in my interview.

"I also discovered that Bob Caret has a great sense of humor and brings a lot of joy to the job of president.”

Brennan says he and his wife Mary, a retired elementary school principal, are house-hunting in advance of his March 1 start date. “It’s such a neat area,” he says, although as prospective homebuyers from the Midwest he concedes they've experienced “some sticker shock.”

But TU’s new provost also emphasizes his longtime ties to the East Coast, which include family in addition to several professional experiences. “Our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren live in Bethesda, just an hour away.

“They’ve already asked us to babysit,” he says with a laugh.

Story by Jan Lucas

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