Coffee With...Melanie Perreault

We sat down with TU’s new provost in March, about a month after she started the job.

Q: You're a history professor. What attracted you to the subject?

A: When I started college I was an English major. I didn’t care for history in high school, but I took a history class just for Gen Ed. I still remember the book list I got. There were books on witchcraft and women in history, and I thought, you can do history of this? It completely opened my eyes to understanding the history of average people. It just blew me away.

Q: Why did you decide to pursue an administrative path in your career?

A: The dark side? This is going to sound kind of cheesy, but I’m from Wisconsin so that’s OK. I had a student who had a problem with graduating come to me when I was a department chair. They took a class that turned out not to transfer. I called the registrar’s office and asked if there was anything we could do for this kid. She said, ‘As department chair you know you can waive that requirement.’ So I did and the student graduated. What it really showed me is that in administration you have the ability to do something that maybe you couldn’t as a faculty member to really help move students forward.

Q: Some people only have vague idea of what a provost actually does. How do you define the job?

A: It’s to create conditions where others might succeed. Your job really is to get in there and problem solve on a large, university-wide scale. You’re looking at some of the day-to-day academic functions—not the minutiae, but what are the systemic things that might improve the lives of students, faculty and make the academic endeavor smoother and stronger?

Q: What have you learned about TU in your first month?

A: When I started I had 118 faculty binders that I had to review. These were tenure, promotion, and five-year reviews. I thought, what basis am I going to have to assess these? It felt like a strange start, but as it turned out it was a brilliant way to start because I was able to see the terrific work that’s happening on this campus. I was incredibly impressed with both the scholarship and creative activities the faculty were engaged with, but also the real commitment to teaching. What you discover at Towson is that the faculty are tremendous scholars, but they’re also paying great attention to what happens in the classroom.

Q: What do you like to do outside of work?

A: If I have time, I like to golf, but I would not call myself a golfer. I’m a duffer.

Q: What else should we know about you?

A: I was on Jeopardy. I had a spectacular bet-it-all, lose-it-all moment on the final question.

Q: Do you remember the final question?

A: Of course I do, I lost $23,000! It’s a question that’s haunted me ever since. Remember, you’re nervous and Alex Trebek is staring you down. The category was ‘word origins’. I was in first place and I bet everything. ‘This term for infidelity comes from a practice of a bird that puts its eggs in other birds’ nests.’ I had no clue. Apparently, the cuckoo bird does this, so the word is ‘cuckold.’ We all got it wrong, so the third place person won $500 or something like that. Of course I knew the Final Jeopardy questions that were on the rest of the week.