Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Rachel Holloway to retire

In 1989, Rachel Holloway joined Virginia Tech as a junior faculty member in communication. She stayed for 36 years.

Now a beloved leader in Burruss Hall, Holloway will retire this summer as vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs, having left an indelible imprint on the university where she carried out her entire career.

During Holloway’s 11-year tenure as vice provost, undergraduate academic affairs introduced sweeping general education reform and championed other initiatives, including First-Year Experience courses and an integrated experiential learning requirement, that dramatically transformed undergraduate education at the university.

“Part of the work of the vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs is to elevate undergraduate education as central to the university's mission,” said Holloway. “The undergraduate experience is not separate from research and outreach. When it's going well, the tripartite mission comes together in ways that make an impact in the world.”

Admired as a tireless advocate for students, Holloway cultivated collaborations with colleagues across the university in her quest to make undergraduate education more supportive of and accessible to an increasingly diverse student body, a central tenet of Virginia Tech Advantage.

“Rachel’s leadership and advocacy for students has profoundly shaped the undergraduate experience at Virginia Tech and distinguished our university as a model for student-centered learning," said Executive Vice President and Provost Cyril Clarke. "Her thoughtful and strategic approach to creating a structure for experiential and engaged learning has and will continue to impact our students long after they graduate. I am grateful for her partnership and contributions, and her many years of selfless service to Virginia Tech.”

Successfully reforming general education

One of the most significant accomplishments of undergraduate academic affairs under Holloway’s leadership was a multiyear overhaul of the undergraduate general education curriculum that culminated in the 2019 launch of Pathways General Education. Pathways is now the foundational academic experience shared by all undergraduates, who choose from a wide variety of courses to learn core concepts in thinking, reasoning, and analysis across the disciplines.

The program also introduced 30 transdisciplinary Pathways minors, including adaptive brain and behavior, data and decisions, disability studies, and integrated security, that now enroll over 1,300 students.

Curricular transformation is essential to the undergraduate experience, said Holloway, but it’s a tough nut to crack. “Many universities have started down the path of general education reform and could never see it through, so I'm very proud that we were able to accomplish that.”

Enhancing the first-year experience and experiential learning

When Holloway joined undergraduate academic affairs, the university was in the middle of designing the First-Year Experience Program as its quality-enhancement plan, a required element of the reaccreditation process. Since Holloway's office shepherded the program into the world in 2015, it's become a hallmark of the Hokie experience with 85 percent of first-year and transfer students completing one of its 183 discipline-based sections. Guided by peer mentors, the courses introduce them to their chosen fields of study, familiarize them with campus resources, and help them successfully transition to the university.

The latest quality enhancement plan, the Bridge Experience Program, also falls squarely under Holloway’s purview with the aim of helping students apply learning beyond the classroom and prepare for post-graduation success. To ensure that more undergraduates have a bridge experience — a hands-on, career-related experiential learning opportunity, such as an internship or undergraduate research — undergraduate academic affairs is leading the charge to ensure that bridge experiences are integrated into degree requirements for 50 percent of academic majors by 2026–27.

Convening conversations to create change

As vice provost, Holloway sees herself as a mentor and facilitator: someone who convenes important conversations around student achievement and cheerleads the central role of academic advisors, academic counselors, and faculty in supporting undergraduates. “We pull people into a room to work on something, and we do a lot of listening. Then we try to figure out how we can support people in their work with students,” she said. 

Under Holloway's direction, undergraduate academic affairs:

• Completed a revision of the undergraduate honor code, adopting a learning-centered approach to academic integrity
• Implemented the Navigate platform to create a coordinated care network among advisors across the university
• Expanded support services and programming for students to promote their timely progress to degree
• Transitioned career and professional development into undergraduate academic affairs as part of the holistic approach to student success

Holloway also has been actively involved in conversations beyond the university. She served for three years on the executive board of the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities, a coalition of her counterparts at 135 schools nationwide and whose discussions range from microcredentials to transfer credit. “Those kinds of issues cut across all our institutions, so it's a place to go and problem solve on behalf of students,” she said.

In these conversations, Holloway’s doctorate in rhetoric comes in handy: She understands that “words wield influence” and uses hers to build genuine relationships. No shortcuts, she said. “It’s just being nice.” 

And it's effective. Executive Vice Provost Don Taylor, who called Holloway "a joy to work with," also noted her ability to get things done.

A life in higher education

In a sense, Holloway's entire life has unspooled on the grounds of a university. As the child of a faculty member at Morehead State University in Kentucky, she graduated from the campus lab school. Professors gawped when she enrolled at Morehead as an undergraduate herself — they remembered her when she was knee-high.

Holloway earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from Morehead State University in 1983, followed by a master’s degree in rhetorical theory and criticism from Purdue University in 1985 and a Ph.D. in communication with an emphasis in public affairs and issue management from Purdue in 1990.

She intended to work in corporate communications after earning her master’s degree, but higher ed exerted an irresistible gravitational pull. “Once I got there, I fell in love with teaching,” she said. “I continued to be a perpetual student, and then I came here,” joining Virginia Tech’s Department of Communication Studies, now the School of Communication, in 1989.

In addition to publishing research on political communication and issue management, Holloway regularly taught courses in public relations and public speaking — one reason why she never shies from talking to large groups. As a faculty member, she also provided academic advising to about 50 students per year and relished the puzzle-solving aspect of making a plan of study. 

In 2002, Holloway became the head of the communication department and oversaw the creation of a new master’s degree in communication. Just when she was contemplating returning to the faculty, she accepted a role as associate dean for undergraduate academic affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences in 2009, saying, “It was everything I like to do: working directly with students, leading advisors, working on curriculum.”

Reflecting on 36 years of experience in higher ed, Holloway said that one of her greatest sources of joy was mentoring students. At this point, she’s more likely to mentor her “academic grandchildren” — the children of her former students, including one long-married couple who met in her class, who are now Hokies themselves.

It’s all part of the student-focused legacy she leaves at the university to which she has dedicated her entire career. “Her great passion is for service to students,” said Taylor. “They are always foremost in her thoughts. She always puts their needs first.”