WSU ‘Poised’ To Advance, New Provost Says Ethnic Studies Scholar With Roots In Indiana Likes The Campus’s Technology
As a girl, Gretchen Bataille sometimes let her imagination wander while she mixed cherry phosphates behind the counter of her father’s drugstore in Mishawaka, Ind.
She never dreamed serving hot fudge sundaes and managing the soda fountain would lead to overseeing college campuses and multimillion-dollar budgets.
Bataille starts as Washington State University’s new provost July 1 after wrapping up the academic year as dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
The first of her family to even attend college, Bataille still shakes her head in disbelief when asked about her academic ascent.
“Looking back, it’s surprising to me that I am where I am, because no one ever pushed me to do these things,” Bataille said in a recent interview. “It was a small factory town of mostly immigrant working families.”
Her grandparents immigrated to Indiana from Belgium and Germany.
One of the nation’s top ethnic studies scholars and co-author of 10 books on the subject, Bataille specialized in American Indian literature because she felt the nontraditional material was being neglected. She began pursuing her English doctorate at Drake University in 1972.
“What was being taught in literature were all books by dead white males, and I knew I wasn’t going to do a dissertation on Hemingway, Faulkner or Shakespeare,” Bataille said. “Native American literature was an area that needed scholars, and students needed to be exposed to it.”
Bataille began her academic career teaching English at Iowa State University. She later served as associate dean for academic personnel at Arizona State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Science. She also chaired the English department and taught in the women’s studies program there. She held identical joint appointments at UC Santa Barbara.
WSU’s proximity to Northwest Indian tribes and the potential for expanded educational outreach to them was one of the job’s main attractions, she said.
But she was most impressed with WSU’s technological capabilities. The entire campus is wired for high-speed Internet access, including residence halls and offices, Bataille said.
“WSU is poised to get the next step when others haven’t even made it to the first step,” she said. “WSU is kind of a jewel up here that a lot of people are unaware of.”
As provost, Bataille will earn $163,000 a year.
Asked to describe her management style, Bataille’s quickly replied, “Consultative and decisive.
“You can’t consult forever or listen forever,” she said. “Sometimes you have to make the decision, recognize not everyone will be happy and be able to accept the blame when the decision is wrong.
“I’m a risk-taker.”
Being a good listener to gauge the campus community’s priorities will be her first challenge at WSU, Bataille said. She plans to visit Pullman once a month until settling in this summer.
“I’m not nervous, I’m not worried - I’m tired,” she said of the new post. “I will be so glad to be here and have just this job.”
, DataTimes