Dr. Steve Collins Promoted to Campus Interim Associate Provost, Wildwood
BY: TYRA LEESMAN
Print Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Steve Collins, a former professor of History at Saint Louis Community College Meramec, was promoted to Campus Interim Associate Provost of the Wildwood campus in late June. In addition to this post, he serves as the Department Chair of Humanities for the campus, and Chair of the Curriculum Committee.
“It was really last minute, but the chancellor asked me to serve as interim associate provost, and of course I was honored. To me, it’s a service,” said Collins.
Until this semester, Collins has been teaching at the Meramec campus. His first year as an Archer was in 1999. Previously, he attended such universities as OSU in Oklahoma, Texas State, and LSU in Louisiana. He attributes his love of teaching history to his first history professor, who made the subject interesting and relevant to him on a personal level.
With a bachelor’s degree in business, Collins entered the United States Air Force in 1987, serving later in the USAF Reserves until 1995. Following his service, he attended graduate school to focus his efforts on becoming a teacher.
“I always wanted to be teaching rather than doing research. That’s why I chose a two-year college instead of a university, four-year institution,” said Collins.
In 1998, Collins and then-wife moved to Saint Louis from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to allow her to attend graduate school. The next year, Meramec hired Collins.
“He’s such a great professor. I was not interested in history at all in school, but he made it fun,” said Syed Ali, a former student in one of Collins’ Meramec classes.
Wildwood has a growing enrollment rate, and following the reduction in force earlier this year, several new members of faculty have been added to the campus roster.
Collins, who has been campus provost for nearly seven weeks, compares learning his new duties to “drinking from a firehose.”
As a interim associate provost, the professor does not attend to matters of bureaucracy and politics, he said. Financial Aid, Collins gratefully includes, is not in his realm of authority.
As the school makes changes to move STLCC toward a “One Campus” reality, provosts have been named at each location to ensure the smooth running of management over faculty, scheduling, and curriculum. Provosts hold a meeting for themselves each week and discuss their topics as a group, said Collins.
“The point is to make sure that all the campuses are doing the same things. We have to be sure everyone is united, and working together,” Collins said.
Collins, who lives in Illinois, travels an hour to the Wildwood campus each day and maintains office hours there for students. The long-distance biker lives with his wife, who he married in April of this year.
The position of campus provost for Wildwood is an interim post, meaning that in the fall of next year, the spot could go to someone else. However, for the school year of 2018-2019, Dr. Collins will serve as interim associate provost.
