Akridge and Plaut Assume Interim Roles at Purdue

Plaut to Interim Ag Dean

There is administrative change happening at Purdue University and it includes the College of Agriculture. With Provost Deba Dutta now the Chancellor of Rutgers University, effective July first the role of interim provost has been handed over to Purdue Ag Dean Jay Akridge.

“He reports to directly to the president of the university and kind of oversees the research teaching, extension mission across the whole university.”

That is Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Affairs Karen Plaut, and she is now serving as interim dean of the College of Agriculture. She shared her thoughts with HAT on her shift in responsibilities at Purdue.

“It’s an opportunity and a pleasure to serve the college,” she said. “It’ll be lots of fun working across all the missions of the college. I also still get to work with my old boss, Jay Akridge, so I’m really happy to have him in that role and still get to work with him, so I’m excited about the opportunity to continue to move the college forward and really continue in the tradition that Jay did.”

Plaut acknowledges that the popular and effective Akridge leaves big shoes to fill.

“Jay has been a wonderful boss and it’s great to be working with him and I’ll do the best I can to fill those shoes. There will be an interim associate dean for research, Shawn Donkin. He’ll do much of the work that I was doing. There are a few pieces that will continue to do just to continue to shepherd those opportunities and move them forward.”

She said Purdue will begin a search this fall for the permanent provost position.

“At this point I’m pretty sure they’re going to do an internal search, and then people will apply and once that search process is over they’ll appoint a permanent provost.”

Plaut added to her diverse background when she arrived at Purdue in 2010 as the associate dean for agriculture research.

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