May 9, 2007 8 min read

CALIFORNIA – After serving seven years as California University of Pennsylvania’s Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, Dr. Thomas G. Kinsey will return to teaching this fall. Unlike his early years as an educator teaching secondary science and environmental education in classrooms, Kinsey fittingly will be teaching research and leadership courses online this fall in Cal U’s health science and sport studies program. “I don’t really use the word retire,” said Kinsey, who came to Cal U in 2000. “I’m stepping aside as graduate dean, which was always part of my plan. When I interviewed for this position, I told the committee and president that my plan was to serve as graduate dean at their pleasure but wanted to finish my career in the classroom.”

Kinsey will step away from his current position at the end of this semester. During his seven-year stint as graduate dean fulltime equivalency (FTE) graduate programs has increased slightly less than 59 percent while the masters programs nationally have increased by 11 percent during this same time period. Since his arrival, he has reengineered the office of grants and contracts, managed the growth of the Global Online programs, revitalized the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects, and introduced the ritual of vesting of academic hoods into the graduate commencement ceremony.

According to Cal U President Angelo Armenti Jr., it would be an understatement of significant proportions to say Kinsey simply served the university well as graduate dean.

“Dr. Kinsey has had a significant and positive impact on the University in his years as graduate dean,” Armenti said. “He took a leadership role in our successful efforts to grow our Web-based graduate programs through Global Online and, at the same time, he provided great leadership in developing our ability to secure grant funding from outside sources. I offer him my gratitude and best wishes as he makes the transition from administrative to faculty duties next fall. He is a wonderful colleague and a great asset to the University.”

The obvious thrust behind Cal U’s unprecedented increase in graduate enrollment has been the institution’s commitment to online education, which Kinsey was a driving force.

“At a meeting Armenti expressed a vision of 4,000 additional FTE in online programs,” Kinsey explained “It became apparent to me that graduate education would be going in that direction, and so basically, I picked up the vision and put together a plan on how we could proceed. The president thought it was doable and has been tremendously supportive of it.”

Interestingly, Kinsey attended a national meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools about four years ago, and at that time, few if any of the attending graduate deans and provosts shared his and Armenti’s vision.

“I tried to engage them in a conversation on online graduate programs, and no one would talk to me. There was no interest,” he said. “It wasn’t on their horizon. Now about 50 percent of their agenda is about online graduate school, so it is very interesting how that evolved.”

Online education is no longer a trend, but the future of graduate programs.

“The reason why this campus is so far ahead of all the rest of the schools, which we are, is partly due to my efforts. But it’s really more due to the vision and support of Armenti. Nobody else in the state system has that kind of support from the president.”

Kinsey was also quick to laud Cal U’s faculty for the online transition.

“When I talk to my counterparts at other campuses, one of their questions is always, ‘how do you get faculty to do this?'” Kinsey said. “That’s not been a big issue here. The faculty has stepped forward to develop the courses, get the training, and in a sense, I am just the middleman on this. I have a president who is supportive, and I have faculty who are ready to do it. I just kind of orchestrate it a little bit.”

Understandably, Kinsey is excited to return to the classroom as an online educator. He will teach a full graduate schedule, three courses, this fall.

“My expertise is in research and even though my background is not in the area of athletics, fitness, wellness and all the things that they do, I do have the expertise in research,” said Kinsey. “I have already looked at their research courses. Currently I will have to do some reading to fill in some gaps, but I think I will be able to step right in.”

Adding to the intrigue is that replacing Kinsey as dean will be Dr. Ronald Wagner, a faculty member from HSSS.

“I think Dr. Wagner is coming into a very good situation,” he said. “I think the office staff here in the graduate office, grant office and Web-based programs are excellent. I believe we are poised with the military to make some real advancement with enrollments in our online programs. Dr. Wagner and I are working closely and will do so in the summer. It will be his call in the fall, and I won’t step on his toes. But I will be available. He also has some great ideas, and I suspect we won’t miss a beat on this campus.”

Kinsey grew up in Halfway, Md., where he played baseball, football and wrestled.

His career in education began in 1968, when he taught secondary science for the Baltimore County Public Schools after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from Towson University earlier in the year. The young educator taught for five years at the University of Maryland at College Park from 1973 when he served as a research assistant for zooplankton studies to 1978 when he taught agricultural biostatistics. He earned his master’s degree in ecology and his doctorate in environmental sciences and science education.

Kinsey spent 22 years at Buffalo State College, the largest college in the State System of New York, achieving the rank of professor in 1993. While teaching, he held several administrative positions at Buffalo including Interim Dean of Graduate Studies and Research from 1997-2000.

He was one of two finalists for the dean of graduate studies position at Buffalo, but disenchanted with a lengthy delay in a final decision, he opted for a change.

“The opportunity presented itself here. I met with the president, and he and I were on the same page as to what I’d like to do,” Kinsey said. “I am very happy with that decision.”

He has been part of a colorful and qualified group of deans at Cal U that possess an intense passion for academic integrity and life away from the ivy towers.

“It’s a very good group of deans,” he said. “On the serious side I will say that during my 22 years at Buffalo State as a faculty member and in administration I saw a lot of deans come and go. I will tell you that the group of deans that we have had here at Cal U during my tenure here have been the best group that I’ve ever seen. They each individually bring qualities and represent their units very well, but more than anything, they are team players. Once we walk out of a difficult meeting, we go off to the Gold Rush room and have lunch together. We have a bowling team, we golf together and go on retreats together. It’s a very special group of people, and I will say that of all the things associated with this transition, I’ll miss that relationship. I know I’m still going to be here and will have contact with them, but it’s going to be different. I will miss that.”

Kinsey plans on teaching for several more years before retiring with his life’s partner Donna who he met shortly after coming to Cal. Initial retirement plans for the couple include serving in the Peace Corps, preferably in South America.

“The Peace Corps is still on our agenda but I need to spend time polishing my Spanish first,” said Kinsey, an avid outdoorsman who particularly enjoys kayaking and fly-fishing. “Donna and I will then be nomads for a while and travel around the country in a camper and just do outdoor things.” Kinsey has two grown children, Mathew an ’05 Cal U graduate who is now a culinary executive chef at Century Inn perusing graduate school applications and his daughter, Ginny, an elementary school art teacher in Fairfax, Va.

While concrete facts and statistics validate many of his unprecedented accomplishments as Cal U’s graduate dean, a modest Kinsey takes considerable pride at a graduate commencement tradition he started.

“There are things that I’ve done, but if I were going to write my legacy, the one thing that I hope continues and lives past me here is the vesting of the academic hood at graduate commencement,” he concluded. “I hope that continues. I hope that’s part of the tradition of this campus forever. Global Online will come and go, technologies will change and the dollars from enrollment increases will disappear. But I hope that stays.”