CHARLES WILSON TO SERVE ANOTHER YEAR AS INTERIM VICE PROVOST

Charles Wilson will serve a second year as interim vice provost for undergraduate studies and dean of the University College, Provost Thomas L. Isenhour announced recently.

"Charles has done an excellent job in his first year in this position. He has made considerable progress in the consolidation of advising, successfully led the Foundations of Excellence Program and has initiated the reform of general education," Isenhour said.

University College, which launched last July, is an organizational unit designed to ensure a more student-centered approach to the collegiate experience, starting with first-year students. There are three broad functional roles for the college: academic orientation, advising and career management; student success services; and instructional coordination and support. All resources, including staff and funding, that support the academic success of first- and second-year undergraduate students are housed in one administrative unit, where a unified vision, clear reporting lines, and efficient and effective interaction and collaboration are guaranteed.

A member of the Old Dominion faculty since 1991, Wilson was an American Council of Education Fellow during the 2005-06 academic year. Known for his passion in the classroom, he was named a SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award winner in 2004 and has received Old Dominion's A. Rufus Tonelson Faculty Award and the Robert L. Stern Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Wilson is an expert in African-American and Southern literatures and his research interests include black manhood, race, class and gender in Southern fiction, and the intersection of past and present in the South. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities grants, including one for a summer institute at Harvard University.

Wilson received a bachelor's degree in English from West Georgia College, a master's degree from North Carolina State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.