Provost Starts Tenure on a Positive Note

After a national search, Adelphi’s new provost and executive vice president, Steve Everett, D.M.A., officially starts his position on July 1, 2018. But, unofficially, Dr. Everett has already been on campus taking meetings and learning the lay of the land—everything from budgets, assets and the University’s areas for growth to simply finding his way around campus.

“There’s a lot to learn about a new institution,” he said. “What can we leverage to craft a more distinctive image of the University? What are the programs we can build for a distinguished legacy of excellence?”

A musician and composer by training, Dr. Everett is no stranger to university administration. His last position was professor of music and dean of the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to his five years at UIC, he worked as Emory University’s assistant vice provost for academic affairs and director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence.

Over the years, he said, he’s developed a sort of a checklist for evaluating university success. In any institution of higher learning, he said, he wants to see:

• Leadership with vision
• Financial resources
• Physical resources
• Strong faculty

“I felt there was a positive in all of these when I started to look at Adelphi,” he said.

Dr. Everett said he has been familiar with his new institutional home for a number of years, ever since bringing Adelphi’s Paul Moravec, D.M.A., University Professor of music, for a visit to Emory. “I remember Paul talking about Adelphi and what a great place it is,” he said.

A man of many curiosities and interests, Dr. Everett’s accomplishments lend him an understanding beyond his training in music. He has worked extensively in electronic music, giving him a strong foundation in computer science. His enduring interest in how the brain perceives music has lent him an understanding of psychology and neurology. Further studies of gamelan music in Indonesia, Carnatic music in India and Japanese Noh theater have contributed to a grounding in world culture and social science.

As an administrator, he has made promoting online courses a priority. Dr. Everett introduced trial online courses at Emory in music, law and public health. Then, at UIC, he sat on a committee that established six online courses, all of which exceeded enrollment. He said that Adelphi has far outpaced either of those institutions in online offerings—another of the University’s assets.

While Dr. Everett has chosen a path that, in many respects, takes him away from composing, he does his best to keep up his creative output and said that music remains with him, even at the provost’s desk. “I’m hoping this will create opportunities to be more involved in the New York creative scene and hopefully bring Adelphi into that as well,” he added.

President Christine M. Riordan said, “Dr. Everett’s outstanding qualifications and compelling ideas very quickly elevated him to the short list of our final candidates. After his visit with our campus community, we were convinced that Dr. Everett is the right fit for Adelphi’s leadership—today and beyond. I am confident that Dr. Everett will propel Adelphi University’s eight esteemed colleges and professional schools, as well as the University Libraries, into the exciting future we have envisioned.”