USD-Magazine-Summer-2023

Gail F. Baker, PhD Senior Vice President and Provost Enjoy the Journey Vital Life Experience

Enjoy the Journey I see these young adults always trying to get to their destination. When I give them advice, I tell them to enjoy the journey. What experiences do you have along the way? There is a process where you are meeting people, you are succeeding, you are failing, you are turning corners. All of that is important, rewarding and joyful. When you are young, you just want to get to the next thing. I would encourage our students to enjoy the journey. Leading the Learning The provost is responsible for all teaching and learning on campus — it’s the academic leadership role. So if it’s in the classroom and it involves teaching and learning, that is what the provost does. Anything that moves the campus forward is what the provost is responsible for. Student success is the most critical part and that is not just measured in graduation rates. Student success is trying to get them to enjoy the journey, connect with one another, connect with faculty members, connect with critical thinking, connect with lifetime learning. For us, success means that our students are making it through and they are experiencing great teachers, great learning, great classrooms and internships, and that we are educating the whole person. I think we do that better than anybody. Celebrating Diversity We want to make sure our faculty members of color here feel supported and we have diversity programs in place to help with that. What we are trying to do is build cohorts with faculty so that faculty of a specific discipline may be able to find another faculty member in a different discipline where they can connect and learn about each other and that’s across all lines. We try to connect faculty members, work with them and support them. What students get from that

is a feeling that this is their community. We are trying to pay attention to every individual who comes here. We are trying to hear their concerns and be responsive and we are trying to increase the numbers so there can be an opportunity to build community. Leaning Into Her Faith My faith supports me. We have had some tough times the past couple of years with COVID and the George Floyd murder. If I didn’t have faith that there is a bigger power, that there is a place we are trying to go, that there is worth in humanity, it would be impossible to get up every day and face the challenges, as we say, “humanity’s urgent challenges,” because you wouldn’t believe you can get it done. Faith has been there with me every step of the way. I believe that God respects all human beings, that we have to respect one another and that there are better days to come. An Optimistic Future I tell students that all the experiences they have — good, bad or otherwise — are preparing them for a future they do not know. While it seems like this is a dark time, and it is, I've also lived through other dark times and the students are the people who help lead us out and lead us into wherever it is we are going. Every experience you have you must absorb it, learn from it and you try to use it to improve the next experience. Don’t get marred if you can’t, think about where you are today and how you can use this to make tomorrow better. The students give me hope. I see them every day and they are laughing and interacting and then they ask really tough questions and they care about the environment and humanity and diversity and respect and I think, “OK, if we can just get them ready, they’ll lead us out.” — As told to Matthew Piechalak

I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and went to Catholic school and had an opportunity to take leadership roles in high school, being very interested in journalism, living through some real tumultuous times in Chicago and being really proud of our city’s heritage and history. All those things helped prepare me for the role I’m now in. Greener Pastures The University of San Diego attracted me to this role and I’m not sure I had previously spent any time in California. An opportunity to serve as provost of this university at this time in its history was very compelling. Even though I had lived in Florida for 11 years, you are always taken aback that you can be in March and the trees are green and the weather is nice. I was also impressed with USD’s commitment to its students, and the idea that through advancing academic excellence, we are helping to prepare innovative leaders dedicated to ethical conduct and compassionate service. When I hit campus, to see that it was not only a beautiful campus, but it also seemed like a calm campus, was nice. Then I met the students and it seemed like the place I needed to be at that point. Words of Wisdom My late sister, Linda, was the smartest person I have ever known and a very spiritual and centered individual who took her Catholicism seriously. I wanted to do everything she did. My other sister, Jackie, teaches me how to be resilient. She never gives up. But the best advice I have ever received came from my father. I’m a first generation college graduate and he would tell me — this is old Boy Scout talk — “leave it better than you found it.” I keep coming back to that any time I have an opportunity … is it better in some way that I can tell?

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