Nicholls State University’s new Provost, Lynn Gillette, is bringing energy and new ideas to help improve enrollment and retention rates.

Gillette was one of three candidates submitted to University President Bruce Murphy after an extensive search that included video interviews, research and community interviews.

Todd Keller, who served as the interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, served as the chair of the provost search committee.

“The one thing I see in this man is a phenomenal level of energy that is matched only by his intelligence and his experience,” Keller said.

Gillette’s level of experience is one of the qualities that impressed Murphy. Before joining the Nicholls administration, Gillette was the President of Sierra Nevada College. He also served as Provost and Executive Vice President there for three years.

“I went with the candidate whose strengths, background and experience formed an academic mission,” Murphy said. “Dr. Gillette has some experience in turning around institutions with financial issues; I thought that was really important.”

During Gillette’s time at Sierra Nevada College, he helped establish financial stability, introduced new programs and increased enrollment. He also held a similar position at Spalding University and helped with their financial turnaround.

“Nicholls is stronger than both of those places are right now, easily,” Gillette said. “I have been so impressed with the people. Nicholls is quite good, but there has been complications related to the tremendous decrease in state support. There’s no hiding that fact.”

Gillette said that his motto is, “No matter how good we are, we can be better,” and that his main focus here will be on increasing enrollment and retention.
“We believe we can increase the quality of advising to help retain more students and help students maximize their experience here,” Gillette said.

To improve retention rates, Gillette plans on proposing a more proactive process for students that go on probation.

“If a student has gone on probation,” Gillette said, “they’ve already sent the University a signal that everything isn’t going exactly right. If we can come in with a systematic way of working with those students to help them be successful, I believe we can increase retention among that group of students significantly.
Keller said he is very impressed with Gillette’s energetic, yet considered approach.

“I am extremely excited, I see a lot of people who are energized and excited,” Keller said. “I think we’re going to have a good semester.”