Ashish K. Vaidya, Los Angeles, has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs, effective July 1.
Ashish K. Vaidya, Los Angeles, has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs, effective July 1.
Vaidya, special adviser to the president for regional economic development at California State University, Los Angles, served as provost and vice president for academic affairs there for four years before assuming his current role.
At St. Cloud State University, Vaidya will be the chief academic officer overseeing a program which includes more than 200 majors and minors and about 800 faculty members for more than 15,000 students.
St. Cloud State President Earl H. Potter said he is pleased to bring “someone with significant accomplishments as a provost to the university’s administrative team.” He added, “It’s not often that we have the opportunity to bring in an academic leader who has a track record in the same position at another institution. Dr. Vaidya will provide key leadership to St. Cloud State as we look to refining our academic offerings to best meet the needs of central Minnesota and beyond.”
Vaidya said he is enthused to be joining the St. Cloud State leadership team and working with its “outstanding students, faculty, staff and alumni.” In addition, he said “I look forward to helping the university collaborate with community partners to meet the educational, economic, social and cultural needs of our region and state.” He added that “St. Cloud State is ideally positioned to take advantage of community-university partnerships to develop new innovative programs that advance our mission of preparing students for life, work and citizenship in the 21st Century.”
At California State, Los Angeles, Vaidya has also had responsibility for strategic planning, accreditation, student success and enrollment management, faculty development and recruitment and resource management as well as other initiatives.
His career has also included stints as dean of the faculty, MBA director and founding director of the Center for International Affairs at California State University Channels Islands. He started his career as a professor of economics, first at California State, Los Angeles and then Channels Islands.
Vaidya holds degrees in economics from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, India and the University of Mumbai. He went on to earn a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Davis.
Vaidya will replace Devinder Malhotra who served as provost at St. Cloud State for five years before being named interim president of Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities. Richard Green, a retired university administrator, is filling the vice president position on an interim position. Green was most recently interim vice president for academic affairs at Albany State University in Georgia.
