Robert Kvavik to Speak at Winter Quarter Convocation

Winter Quarter Convocation
10:00 a.m., Bede Ballroom
Open to all UMC students, faculty and staff

Robert B. Kvavik, Associate Vice President and Executive Officer at the University of Minnesota, will be the guest speaker at the UMC Winter Quarter Convocation, Wednesday, December 17, at 10:00 a.m. in UMC's Bede Ballroom.

Kvavik (Ph.D., Stanford University 1971) joined the faculty in 1968 as a specialist on comparative politics. He has written extensively on comparative government and politics, and, especially Scandinavia and interest groups. Major sponsored research awards include several NDEA Title VI grants for Western European Studies. He has held visiting teaching positions at Columbia University, the University of Oslo, and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is past president of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, and past chair of the Board of Directors of the Midwestern Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA).

Kvavik serves as chief of staff for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost with major responsibility for planning and budgeting as well as student administrative services. He has served as Vice Provost; Assistant Vice President for International Education; Director for Research Development in the College of Liberal Arts; Director of the Center for Western European Studies; and Director of Graduate Studies and associate chair of the Political Science Department. He has extensive experience as a consultant to universities in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia in the areas of program assessment, planning, and development.

He was the principle architect of the University of Minnesota's Initiative for Excellence in Undergraduate Education and the University's long-term planning document, University 2000. Noteworthy administrative assignments at the University include the formulation and evaluation (including institutional benchmarks and performance criteria); Responsibility Center Management (RCM); administrative re engineering initiatives, especially in the area of student systems; a comprehensive campus plan for classrooms that includes an overhaul of policies, new management system, quality and utilization standards, and classroom design; and preparation and presentation of the University's biennial budget and capital request to the Board of Regents and the state legislature.

Disability Accommodations available upon request. For more information, call 218-281-8587.

Posted: 12-09-97

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