Chancellor Perman Appoints Dr. Melanie Perreault to Serve as Towson University Interim President, Effective Feb. 1, 2023
Dec. 8, 2022To the TU Community:
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Dr. Melanie Perreault, provost and executive vice president for academic and student affairs, will serve as Towson University’s interim president as we search for a successor to Dr. Kim Schatzel. Provost Perreault assumes the role on Feb. 1.
Dr. Perreault has been central to TU’s growth and success over the past four years. More than half of her tenure has coincided with the COVID pandemic, and her leadership has not only been shaped by the experience; it has, in turn, shaped a university that’s stronger for having navigated the crisis.
For instance, Provost Perreault has created programs to nurture student achievement, threatened by years of remote learning—innovations like summer boot camps to reinforce incoming students’ foundational skills, and co-locating support services so that students can more easily take advantage of academic help, and the professionals serving them can learn from one another.
Provost Perreault has increased institutional aid to incoming students, allowing TU to rebound from COVID-era enrollment losses and retain students who would otherwise struggle to afford tuition. She’s now spearheading TU’s first-ever comprehensive enrollment master planning process.
Complementing this focus on students is Dr. Perreault’s attention to faculty. Under her leadership, a small instructional design and delivery office has grown into a center supporting faculty in all aspects of teaching and scholarship. Dr. Perreault increased pay for adjunct faculty and lecturers, long a priority of TU’s shared governance councils. She’s focused on diversifying TU’s professoriate, investing in programs to make faculty searches more inclusive, to hire more underrepresented faculty, and to retain them at Towson.
President Schatzel has relied on Dr. Perreault’s deep expertise as Towson pursues even greater growth and prominence, tapping her to lead TU’s push for an R2 Carnegie Classification, which signifies that the university has high research activity. The five-year plan provides for new faculty and staff lines, direct research support, and a restructuring of Towson’s R&D enterprise.
I’m grateful to Provost Perreault for agreeing to step into the top spot at Towson. I know she’ll continue to guide the university with the same vision, care, and confidence that have characterized her last four years.
The presidential search will be conducted by Isaacson, Miller, one of the country’s premier executive search firms. I’ll be in touch with you in the new year to detail how the process will unfold and how you can be involved. You’ll have the opportunity to share with me the qualities you’d like to see in Towson’s next leader, and I’ll invite you to nominate people to serve on the search committee.
Until then, I wish you all a joyous holiday season.
Sincerely,
Jay A. Perman
Chancellor
Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu