Provost Fred Kniss announces his retirement

 Dr. Fred Kniss, provost of Eastern Mennonite University, has announced plans to retire at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. He has served in the role since July 2009.

In an announcement to the campus community, Kniss said he considers his years at EMU “to be the best of my 35-year career in higher education.”

An alumnus of 1979, he came to EMU from Loyola University Chicago, where he was professor, chair of sociology, and founder and director of the McNamara Center for the Social Study of Religion. Kniss also served one year as interim dean of Loyola’s graduate school.

“I am deeply grateful for the gift of being able to do meaningful work for an institution I love both as my alma mater and my place of employment,” Kniss said. “I have had the honor and privilege of serving two presidents, supporting their leadership during a time of major change for the university and for higher education in general. More significantly, I have had the sacred opportunity to support the success of students, faculty, and staff in a community of learning. I find deep joy in seeing others succeed and knowing that I played a role in helping that to happen.”

Kniss served under President Emeritus Loren Swartzendruber until 2017 and for the last five years with President Susan Schultz Huxman.

“Provost Kniss has made substantial contributions, serving with special insight both to the academic mission and vision of EMU, as well as in effective facilitation of academic discussions outside of EMU,” said Huxman. “He’s actively advanced our unique community of learning into its second century, and positioned EMU in conversations on topics central to our place in the faith-based ecosystem, such as climate change, interfaith engagement and pedagogical innovation.”

Among other outreach, Kniss represented EMU within the Marpeck Fund, an organization to strengthen cooperation of the eight Mennonite colleges and universities by sharing of faculty resources and joint programming. 

Huxman also thanked Kniss personally. “I am hugely indebted to his astute advice and unwavering support these past five years,” she said.

Vice President for Enrollment and Strategic Growth Mary Jensen has worked closely with Kniss on development of new academic programs, especially in her former role as associate provost,  including a thriving undergraduate degree program in aviation, and new structures for graduate and professional programming. 

“Fred is a brilliant academician and dedicated leader whose legacy includes an outstanding faculty who prepare our students for success providing both academic excellence and caring support,” she said. “He is also a genuine and principled human being whose civility and collegiality have shaped the positive and productive environment that is EMU today.”

Professor Mark Sawin, president of Faculty Senate from 2020-22, has similarly appreciated his close collaboration with Kniss in a series of challenging years. The provost brought frankness and honesty to difficult and complex situations, and approached issues with a consistent willingness to “find the best solutions to hard problems, even when those decisions weren’t popular.”

Sawin drew an analogy with the hot peppers that Kniss grows, and shares liberally, from his garden.

“His impressively potent hot sauce is enjoyed by many in EMU’s dining hall though few realize he’s the one who made it. I see that as a fitting analogy for his work at EMU,” Sawin said. “As the chief academic officer he was often presented with a field full of hot issues. He didn’t take the heat out of those issues, but he did try to convert them into something beneficial instead of hurtful—hard work that he often did without others ever noticing.”

Kniss has been a strong advocate for expansion of inclusivity, Sawin said. “I give him a lot of the credit for his behind-the-scenes work to help bring about EMU’s change in hiring policy, allowing us to embrace LGBTQ+ faculty and staff members. That was a long and difficult administrative process, and one that strained a lot of relationships, but Fred rightly saw it as a true issue of justice and thus continued to work for that important change. EMU is a better institution and lives more fully into its Christian mission of doing justice and loving mercy because of that work.”  

On campus, Kniss has been an influential leader and champion for interdisciplinary integration. He co-facilitated discussion around and implemented the plan for a new three-school academic structure that has enhanced innovative collaborations, increased budgetary efficiency, and streamlined undergraduate-graduate tracks, among other objectives. It was fully implemented in fall 2020. 

He has also been an advocate for student enrichment and formation by  increasing collaborations between academic and student life divisions with the addition of a new dean of students position. Kniss has also been instrumental in improving recruitment and retention of many outstanding and diverse scholars, teachers and artists that comprise the faculty and administrative staff of EMU.

During his tenure, EMU has made significant progress in efforts to achieve racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“We still have much work to do to move beyond nondiscrimination to true equity and inclusion, but we have made significant progress in laying the foundation and enhancing the educational experience of our students,” he noted.

Not one of these achievements at EMU was the result of his own work, Kniss said, but emblematic of the collective contributions of the community, including the president, other administrators, and key faculty and staff members. 

“Still, the fact that I was able to support, facilitate, and sometimes lead these important advances gives me great satisfaction as I anticipate retirement,” he said.

The national search for the next provost will begin shortly.

Huxman will appoint a search committee to select candidates for on-campus interviews. Members of the campus community, including faculty, staff, and students, will have the opportunity to provide feedback on each of the candidates, and input from all groups will be considered in selecting the next provost.