“It is an honor and a privileged life to be the provost of Iona.”

That was the recurring statement made by Iona’s newest Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Mark Kiselica.

Kiselica officially started his job as Provost July 1, but he feels as if already the Iona community embraces him.

“I feel complimented that the Iona community has faith in me,” he said.

After a national search for a new provost, Kiselica was chosen to forward the school’s strategic plan.

Kiselica feels lucky to be working for the Iona community.

“I have experienced directly the caring community that exists here. It is a very caring community where students come first,” he said. “Iona is dedicated to educating the whole person, the mind, heart and spirit, and there is something really special about a place where that happens.”

Kiselica has many goals for the upcoming academic year, but one of his biggest goals is to support more global awareness and multicultural sensitivity.

He’s hoping to expand the study abroad program as a part of the strategic plan that was introduced last Spring.

The plan is to get more students studying abroad, and to encourage students from other countries to study at Iona.

 “How can we have more international students study here?” he said. “I want to support that by creating the academic forums on global awareness and supporting their growth.”

The school is currently working on relationships with countries that foster their students studying in New Rochelle.

Kiselica sees how diverse the Iona student body is and is hoping to celebrate diversity in more ways,

“I want to support the expansion of an academic environment that fosters multicultural awareness and sensitivity,” he said.

One of Kiselica’s goals is to have more classes focused on diverse cultural issues.

“We have the most diverse mixture of people in our population in the history of our country and that’s reflected in the composition of students going to college,” he said. “I think as that grows, so do multicultural issues have to grow.”

Before Iona, Kiselica was the dean of the school of education and the vice provost of the College of New Jersey.

Although the College of New Jersey differs from Iona in size, the ethos of the two schools remain the same.

“The College of New Jersey is a very caring, student oriented college with high academic standards and much of what I was involved there informs my work here,” he said.

Kiselica asks just one thing from the students to help him better understand Iona.

“If they recognize me and pass me on campus, they can stop, say ‘hi’ and introduce themselves,” he said. “Tell me about who they are, where they come from, and what they’re interested in. That’s the best part of the job, getting to know the students.”