Provost gains spot as president of Pa. university

YSU's president praised the provost's impact on the campus and community.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Dr. Tony Atwater, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Youngstown State University, has been selected to serve as president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
The executive committee of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's Board of Governors made the selection after a national search. Atwater will begin at IUP on Feb. 1.
Dr. David Sweet, president of YSU, said Friday that an interim YSU provost would be named in the near future, and the process of choosing a new provost would begin when spring semester starts in January.
Atwater will replace Dr. Diane L. Reinhard, who has served as IUP interim president the past 11 months.
"Dr. Atwater's leadership, experience and academic background are well suited to building on the outstanding successes we have enjoyed at IUP," said Susan Delaney, chair of IUP's Council of Trustees.
"I am confident he will work well with the entire community to expand upon these accomplishments and to meet future challenges faced by IUP and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education," Delaney said.
Atwater eager
Atwater said he is eager to assume the IUP presidency, "I am very much looking forward to working with the chancellor, the board of governors and the campus community in advancing IUP to the next level of academic excellence and distinction."
IUP is the largest of the 14 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education universities, enrolling nearly 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students on its main campus and two branch campuses.
Sweet said of Atwater's departure: "I have mixed feelings. We're sad to see him leave, but it is a great opportunity for him to achieve a career objective."
"Tony Atwater and Dr. Beverly Atwater, who is a physician, have had a great impact not only on the university but the community as well. They will be missed," he said.
His history
In 2001, Atwater was named provost of YSU, where he has also served as the university's chief academic officer and is responsible for supervising the academic deans of six colleges and the graduate school and managing an annual budget of $56 million.
Before coming to YSU, Atwater served as dean of the College of Professional Studies & amp; Education at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Ky. While there, he coordinated budget, hiring and personnel decisions for the college.
In 1995, Atwater was named associate vice president of academic affairs and professor of communication at the University of Toledo, in Toledo, where he directed the university's academic program review initiative and oversaw college accreditation's and academic program development.
Atwater has received numerous nationally competitive fellowships, including those from the Poynter Institute and the Gannett Leadership Institute. He was selected as a participant in the 2001 national competition in the Management and Leadership in Education Program at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He also served as national president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications.
Atwater was also notified this fall that he was a finalist for the president's position at Texas A & amp;M University in Corpus Christi.