Announcing the Inaugural Vice Provost for Experiential Learning

February 27, 2024

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community,

Our unwavering commitment to student success is reflected in the Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan, which calls upon us to expand our spectrum of experiential learning opportunities—such as research and scholarly collaboration with faculty, internships, service-learning and community engagement, study abroad, and more—and ensure they are accessible to all students.

To that end, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Charles (Chuck) Keeton as our inaugural Vice Provost for Experiential Learning.

Vice Provost Keeton will collaborate with partners from across Rutgers–New Brunswick and universitywide to help create new high-impact experiential learning opportunities that will best prepare students for future success, and to make these opportunities more accessible by increasing awareness and removing financial, logistical, and other barriers that may prevent students from participating. He will also lead efforts to better track participation in such programs and assess their impact on student outcomes such as retention, on-time graduation, and post-graduation success. As part of this effort, Dr. Keeton will lead the units in our Division of Undergraduate Education that focus on experiential learning, including the Aresty Research Center, Byrne First-Year Seminars, Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Academy (IDEA), and Office of Distinguished Fellowships.

Vice Provost Keeton is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences. An astrophysicist, Dr. Keeton studies how gravity bends light and uses observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and telescopes around the world to map the mysterious dark matter that surrounds galaxies and pervades the universe. He held the Bart J. Bok Fellowship at the University of Arizona and a NASA Hubble Fellowship at the University of Chicago before joining Rutgers in 2004.

While at Rutgers, Dr. Keeton has been a champion for making experiential learning practices available to our students. He served as the Aresty Research Center’s Faculty Director from 2011 to 2017, as Undergraduate Program Director of Physics and Astronomy from 2018 to 2019, and as Academic Dean of the SAS Honors Program since 2019. He has taught seven different Byrne seminars a total of 14 times and has served on the Byrne Seminars Faculty Advisory Committee since 2013. He has helped the Office of Distinguished Fellowships elevate our students by assisting with Fulbright U.S. Scholarship and Goldwater Scholarship nominations and mock interview panels since 2012, and currently chairs the Goldwater Scholarship campus selection committee. He also serves on the Lloyd C. Gardner Fellowship Program’s faculty advisory board and the SAS Signature Course steering committee.

Dr. Keeton has also received numerous awards and recognitions for excellence in teaching, including the Rutgers Society of Physics Students Outstanding Teacher Award in 2007, the Rutgers Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2010, and the School of Arts and Sciences Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education in 2020.

Dr. Keeton will serve in the vice provost role part-time this semester as he completes his term as Academic Dean of the SAS Honors Program and will become full-time on July 1.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Keeton to this new role, which will support the Academic Master Plan priority of helping our students prepare for success in their future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Professor
Rutgers University–New Brunswick