By Taylor Rapalyea

Staff Writer

Do you have something to say to or ask the new Provost? With Dr. Katie Conboy, you can do it in person, during her open office hours.

New Provost Dr. Katie Conboy is settling into Simmons College with ease. Students and professors alike have noticed her relaxed but enthusiastic demeanor and seem to believe that she will make a positive difference on the institution.

“It’s feeling very much like home,” said Dr. Conboy when asked how she was enjoying Simmons.

Dr. Conboy said that the transition from her job at Stonehill College to her role as the Provost at Simmons was easy in some ways but difficult in others. She commented the sense of community was similar between the two colleges, but noted that Simmons was larger and more complex.

While on her aptly dubbed Listening Tour, on which she is speaking to faculty and students, Dr. Conboy has found a few things she’s determined to work on.

Dr. Conboy’s main goals for her time at Simmons include capitalizing on interdisciplinary opportunities. In other words, she hopes to, over time, build programs that take skills from each of the five schools to create an interdisciplinary major.

She also hopes to shift Simmons to a more global focus.

“I’d like to see our curriculum continue to grow in its international dimensions,” said Dr. Conboy. “I’d like to see more of our students from Simmons go abroad, and I’d also like to see if there are some ways we can help students to do that especially students who find the affordability factor really daunting.”

The final thing that Dr. Conboy said she wanted to bring more of to Simmons is social justice related volunteer opportunities. She noted that she wanted to involve more faculty members in working with community partners so that the connection would be more sustained.

“It would be neat to say that Simmons is that kind of community partner with Boston,” said Dr. Conboy, referencing the possibility of having a thoroughly positive impact on the city. “That it really brings its resources in deep ways to have an impact out there.”

She noted the need to reward students and faculty’s efforts in the community so that the two groups might be able to justify giving a certain amount of time to those labors.

Dr. Conboy will be holding open office hours for students, both in her office and around campus, during which she encouraged students to stop by and voice their comments, questions, and concerns, or to just say hi.

“Things that I’m in charge of, I want to know if they’re working for students,” said Dr. Conboy. “It could be from activism to just wanted to say ‘I met the Provost!’”

Dr. Conboy will be holding her next open office hours on Nov. 6 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Common Grounds Café. The hours can be found in the Simmons Voice Ongoing Calendar.