Hesham El-Rewini fielded questions about diversity, retention rates and global opportunities for college students Wednesday during the third forum for Ohio University's incoming executive vice president and provost.
El-Rewini, who serves as senior vice provost & dean of the College of Engineering and Mines at the University of North Dakota, spoke to about 50 people in Walter Rotunda about his experience and ideas about higher education.
He said his goal for higher education is to “teach students how to think, not what to think.”
He stressed the importance of a liberal arts foundation for higher education.
“With the complexity of the world … continuing to use liberal arts as the foundation for our education is a must,” he said. “It’s more important than ever. The goal of higher education is that we help students learn how to ask the right question.”
One question, which was submitted online, asked El-Rewini about the role of the provost in improving diversity at the university.
The theme of diversity and accommodations for students continued throughout the forum. Dianne Bouvier, Americans with Disabilities Act director at OU, asked about El-Rewini’s experience with accessibility.
He said he has created resources to prepare “the next generation of leadership,” such as outreach programs at UND to provide resources for Native American students.
El-Rewini also answered questions about how to turn students into global leaders.
“The university has a role to produce those global citizens,” he said. “I think we need to encourage students to study abroad. Encourage students to learn about different cultures. Encourage students to learn different languages.”
El-Rewini finished the forum by stressing the importance of faculty input when creating university policies.
“No vision, no matter how great the vision is, is going to be successful without the endorsement of all the stakeholders, specifically faculty members and students,” he said.
From there, he said he worked with faculty at UND to create comprehensive strategies to increase retention rates. He and faculty members looked at the reasons students were not graduating on time and addressed them to help students graduate.
“At the end, every person owned this vision,” he said. “Every person felt they had something to do with the vision.”
