Former Provost Osborne up for UBalt position

On Feb. 15, Miami University’s former provost Jason Osborne participated in an open forum at the University of Baltimore (UBalt) for the university’s provost position.

Osborne was invited on behalf of Christine Spencer, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UBalt, who is chairing the Provost Search Committee. Osborne was the first out of five candidates to speak at the university. Each of the candidates gets the opportunity to present themselves to the university’s community and answer questions from the audience. Faculty, staff, students and alumni of UBalt were invited to attend the forum.

Osborne now works as a professor of statistics at Miami, where he previously served as provost for almost three years. Before coming to Oxford, he was the dean of Graduate Studies at Clemson University and a department chair at the University of Louisville. Osborne worked at seven different universities before his role at Miami.

The UBalt community will hear from four other candidates, with the last open forum on March 2. Feedback from audience members will be collected after each session.

Earlier this month on Feb. 6, Osborne briefly updated his LinkedIn to include the title “Executive Director of MU Institute for Responsible Gaming, Lotteries, and Sport.” By the end of the day, Osborne had removed the title from his page.

The institute falls under Miami’s ASPIRE program, which stands for advancing strategy, partnerships, institutional relations and economy. The program finds community, corporate and government partners that will work with Miami’s mission, such as in the case of College@Elm.

In an email to The Miami Student, Alecia Lipton, Miami’s associate director of media relations, confirmed that Osborne was not in this role.

“Along with the institute’s affiliated faculty and staff, the ASPIRE team has begun exploring how to best structure the center for continued growth and success into the future,” Lipton wrote. “It anticipates that the institute will be led by an executive director, but no position has yet been established.”

However, Lipton did share that Osborne is part of the institute’s team. Osborne did not respond to requests for comment.

ASPIRE’s new institute will collect research and data on the Ohio gaming industry as legislation is passed in the state.

“The Institute will initially advance responsible gaming by addressing issues around addiction, policy, and the most pressing industry questions,” the institute’s website reads. “We will provide objective and non-partisan research to policy makers and the gaming industry on strategies for responsible gaming engagement.”

If the institute requires an executive director, the university will need to post the position’s details, according to Ohio’s laws on hiring unclassified administrative staff.

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Under the law, the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity will also need to approve the recruitment plan for attracting the diverse pool of applicants.

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