Maurie McInnis — the University’s vice provost for academic affairs — was recently appointed provost at the University of Texas at Austin.
McInnis, who also teaches art history at the University, will begin working full time at the University of Texas this summer. In the meantime, she will remain at the University and will travel to Texas intermittently to prepare for her appointment.
“This is an amazing opportunity for me to have a leadership role in one of the nation’s great public universities,” McInnis said. “It’s such a big and bold and vibrant university.”
While inter-university moves are common for higher-level administrators, McInnis has a particularly strong tie to the University.
She received her bachelor’s degree from the University in 1988 and lived on the Lawn her fourth year, and has taught at the University for almost 20 years.
“I loved my time here and was very involved,” McInnis said. “I have so many great colleagues and friends, and I will always be a Wahoo.”
McInnis credited the relationships she’s formed for much of her success in improving the quality of both education and research at University. Starting out at University of Texas, McInnis said one of her main objectives will be meeting people from various areas within the school.
“One of my major goals is to get to know people,” McInnis said. “So much of [my work] runs and works from relationships.”
A major change for McInnis, however, will be university size. The University has about 20,000 students, while the University of Texas has approximately 51,000 students.
“[There’s] no doubt that scale alone is a challenge,” McInnis said. “[But] my background at the University of Virginia has prepared me enormously well.”
McInnis said that managing 11 schools within the University is challenging, and that while University of Texas has more schools associated with it, they cover a similar breadth of topics.
Representatives from the University of Texas did not respond to requests for comment.