Starting off in her education, Susan Ganter, University of Texas Permian Basin’s new provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, thought she would go into choral conducting.
But after adding a math major and continuing her educational journey, Ganter decided the university environment was for her.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematical sciences and music from Southern Methodist University. She received a master’s in applied mathematics and a doctorate in educational administration with a focus on mathematics, both from University of California, Santa Barbara.
She spent most of her faculty years at Clemson University in mathematical sciences, but Ganter said she wanted to be more involved in the “transformational part of universities,” so she decided to go into administration.
Officially, Ganter started at UTPB July 18. When her position was announced, her daughter was a senior. She has two children.
“We worked out an arrangement where I came one week a month during the spring semester, so that I could stay for my daughter to graduate. President Woodley was just amazing about that. The bonus of it was, I told her later, I said, obviously, it was wonderful for me personally, but professionally even; it meant that I had the luxury of having about six months to get to know the institution, to talk to people, to meet the community without the pressure (of people) putting things under your nose to sign …,” Ganter said.
Because her title is long, her two children decided to shorten it by calling her Puffball Ganter, or Puffy.
But seriously, her job is huge.
“… The provost piece is being over all of Academic Affairs, so all of the deans, all the colleges, the library, online education, our research, graduate studies, and our Office of Innovation and Commercialization … all of that falls under the provost,” Ganter said.
“But the executive vice president piece was actually a new thing that President Woodley added because she wanted someone who was also going to work with her on community relations and fundraising and … the outward facing piece of the university because she wants that strong academic part to be out in the community, and it just hasn’t been as much in the past …,” Ganter added.
Ganter said she and UTPB President Sandra Woodley are a team. Ganter said Woodley has made it clear that she selected Ganter because she thought Ganter had the background to bring strength to academic affairs.
Ganter said she and Woodley put their heads together to come up with the big areas that need attention.
“… Really, I think the overarching thing that academic affairs needs is we need a strategic vision that aligns with the strategic plan that has been put in place for the university,” Ganter said.
The strategic plan is about four years old and includes things like community outreach and relations and growing its research and strategic partnerships with industry.
“That’s a strength that I bring to the table because in my interdisciplinary work in mathematical sciences, I’ve done a lot of that, connecting with research, with industry and thinking about not just mathematics as a discipline, but what kind of problem solving can you do across the sciences. …,” Ganter said.
Why students might choose UTPB instead of other regional colleges have not really been grappled with before by academic affairs, she said.
“We’ve just offered our programs and not really thought about how it all fits together and how it serves the community. I think those are the big questions that we’re going to be working on this year,” Ganter said.
Resources are always a big issue.
“I think there are things we could do better to be more efficient with our resources and use them to really put funding and people into areas where we want to grow. …,” she added.
Two big factors drew Ganter to UTPB and the position. “One is I’m a native Texan, and I wanted to come home. I’m actually from the Houston area. I grew up right about five minutes from NASA Space Center, so I grew up with astronauts’ kids, which was super fun. So that’s one and the other is on the professional side. UT Permian Basin is part of the University of Texas System and the system, I think, is at a moment in time where they’re looking at this campus as the next big thing for the system. I think there’s a lot of interest in becoming an even greater presence in the Permian Basin,” Ganter said.
When she was an undergraduate student at SMU, places like UT Arlington and UT Dallas were sleepy commuter campuses that didn’t have very many students “and now look at what they are.”
She added that UTPB could be the next coming thing.
“… I wanted to come somewhere where student success is highly valued. That’s been a lot of my work over the years and where there was a feeling that we’re ready for our next big adventure, and I think that’s exactly where this institution is,” Ganter said.
Ganter comes to UTPB from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where she had served as Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Mathematics since 2017. Prior to ERAU, she was School Director and Department Chair at Virginia Tech, Clemson University, and East Carolina University.
Her research focused on the evaluation of innovations in postsecondary science and mathematics curricula and has been supported by grants totaling over $12 million, including a prestigious Senior Research Fellowship in residence at the National Science Foundation, the UTPB website said. Student access and success at the postsecondary level are natural components of her work, including the implementation and evaluation of programs designed to improve success rates for underrepresented students.
Woodley said she is glad to have Ganter on board.
“The University is set to benefit from Dr. Ganter’s breadth of experience and enthusiasm for helping UTPB achieve our strategic goals. We are excited to have someone with such an impressive and diverse background on our team,” Woodley said.
