On Wednesday evening, about 50 members of the faculty and staff attended a welcome reception for the new provost and vice president of EMU, Kim Schatzel, who started on Jan. 3.

Provost Schatzel was previously the dean of the College of Business at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and has extensive business and budgeting experience.

The evening started out with refreshments, mingling among faculty and staff and a chance to meet and greet Provost Schatzel. For some this was the first chance they had to chat with the provost while others joked about having already met her and were now making it official.

A half hour into the reception, faculty senate president, Matt Evett, welcomed and introduced Kim Schatzel to the faculty and staff.

Of Provost Schatzel, Evett said, “She has already been well received,” and that they were excited to have her here at EMU.

Evett was part of the search committee that looked to fill the position of provost and vice president, and eventually chose Kim Schatzel as their choice.

He said Schatzel’s real world experience in business and budgeting before going back to work in the world of academia were a perfect fit for the kind of provost they were looking for. Her experience working with faculty as a dean at the University of Michigan-Dearborn were also a plus and she has been described as being very personable and approachable.

After Evett’s introduction, Provost Schatzel gave a short speech thanking everyone for attending and said she was very excited to be part of the Eastern Michigan University community. She went on to talk about the importance of faculty and staff working together and looking forward to this being a great year at EMU.

“I really appreciate the candid and open conversations,” Schatzel said. “The more we can work together for Eastern’s students, staff and faculty, the better we will be.”