Utah Valley University’s provost will serve as acting president while the search starts to find a permanent replacement for Astrid Tuminez, who will step down at the end of next month after a popular but challenging term.

Wayne Vaught, who has been UVU’s provost and vice president for academic affairs since June 2019, will take on the position after Tuminez gives her final official address at the university’s April 29 graduation ceremony.

The Utah Board of Higher Education met briefly Tuesday to approve Vaught’s appointment, moving fast to install a temporary leader who can also start shadowing Tuminez in the coming weeks as she “begins to relinquish some of her duties.”

“This is really an honor,” Vaught commented during the afternoon meeting, thanking the board several times. “UVU has just been a phenomenal institution.”

Some might recognize Vaught for — like Tuminez — his spiritedness. He jumped up from the audience and danced on stage alongside her during a technology hiccup at Tuminez’s “State of the University” address in January. That’s where she announced she’d be leaving after nearly eight years at the helm — currently the longest-serving public school president in the state.

Several board members said they appreciated Vaught’s willingness to step up and fill the large shoes left behind by the outgoing president.

The board’s intention has been to ensure a smooth transition after the university experienced a particularly tumultuous past year. UVU was catapulted into the national spotlight in September with the shooting death of political commentator Charlie Kirk at the Orem campus.

That came as Tuminez was still grieving the death of her husband, Jeffrey Tolk, who died earlier last year. She had been on her way to Rome, traveling in his memory, on the day Kirk was shot; she flew back to Utah as soon she got word.

University leadership has faced some criticism in the aftermath of the shooting, including whether its relatively small police force adequately prepared for the high-profile speaker’s visit. The university has waited to respond after calling for an independent review, which should be finalized this spring.

Vaught will be tasked with steering the university through that fallout, as well continued state legislative and federal headwinds pushing against higher education.

That includes pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on schools to enroll fewer international students and major cuts to research funding. Utah has also instituted million-dollar budget cuts for public colleges and universities, currently in their second year of implementation. That comes after an already restrictive state policy curtailing diversity initiatives.

Vaught will also take the lead of what has quickly ballooned into the largest public university in the state, with UVU counting a record 48,670 students enrolled this fall. But he said he’s excited by those numbers and by the school’s recent 11 percentage point increase in its student graduation rate.

He said he intends to “keep up the momentum.”

“I think we’re headed in a really positive direction.”

When he was originally selected as provost at UVU, Tuminez heralded Vaught in a statement, calling him “a gifted academician and champion of higher education” who loves engaging with faculty.

“He understands students, faculty, what it takes to run a university, and, most importantly, he is the right person at the right time for UVU,” she said at the time.

Vaught brings decades of administrative experience with him to the role. Prior to coming to UVU, he was at the University of Missouri-Kansas City for 21 years, including seven years as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and nearly three years as associate dean.

He also served as chair of the school’s philosophy department, where he was also a distinguished faculty member. He focused his research on pediatric decision-making with intersections in bioethics and conflicts in health care.

Vaught faced some pushback as an administrator at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, including being named in a 2013 lawsuit by a former lecturer, who alleged administrators retaliated against him because he refused to change the grade of a student-athlete who was failing. The case was later dismissed by the court, according to reporting from The Kansas City Star.

Vaught also appeared in the news in 2018, when he suddenly withdrew his name as a selected finalist for a provost job at Wright State University in Ohio on the day he was scheduled to visit. No reason was provided at the time, according to Dayton Daily News.

Previously, Vaught was a faculty member of what is now Drexel University in Pennsylvania and Georgetown College in Kentucky.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and a master’s from Baylor University. Vaught completed his bachelor’s degree at Georgetown College.

It’s unclear at this time if Vaught can be considered for the permanent president job. Several leaders chosen to briefly serve at other schools recently — namely at Utah State University and Weber State University — were prohibited from doing so in their interim contracts.

Vaught is also a somewhat surprising choice after a different administrator, Jim Mortensen, UVU’s vice president of finance, previously served as acting president when Tuminez took a sabbatical after losing her husband.

Before that, though, on a separate occasion, Vaught also briefly stepped in as acting president, Utah Board of Higher Education Chair Amanda Covington noted Tuesday.

Covington said the search for a permanent leader is ongoing and a committee is currently drafting a job description.

The board has also said that it will use a new model when hiring a president to replace Tuminez.

Going forward, it will appoint a transition team — made up of UVU and Utah System of Higher Education officials — to help lead the school and support the newly chosen president in their first six months. It’s similar to what many companies do in the private sector.

The opening at UVU continues the turnover trend among the state’s higher education leadership. Currently, Weber State University is also looking for a new president after its previous leader, Brad Mortensen, was selected to fill the vacancy at Utah State University.