Eager Appointed Provost  

By Kylie Lancaster// 

Hood College officials announced the appointment of Paige Eager as the provost and vice president of academic affairs on March 16.   

Eager, who has taught at Hood for 20 years, has served as the interim provost since July 2024.

Eager said one of her primary focuses now is the Middle States Commission on Higher Education visit for the college’s reaccreditation.   

“They’re coming for three days, March 29 to April 1,” Eager said. “Then, hopefully, we will be reaccredited or reaffirmed for another eight years.”   

Eager also plans to hold a listening tour, where she will go around campus and listen to what’s on people’s minds.   

Further into the future, Eager said the college may need to create a third school.  

“We have this kind of hybrid structure right now at the college where we have, you know, probably about half of our academic departments nested or folded into two schools,” Eager said. “The rest of the academic departments still aren’t under school structure, so I think that’s definitely something I’d like to work on.”   

There is no timeline for this, but Eager said she would like to initiate this project in the next three years.   

Eager also intends to meet with coaches to discuss athletic recruitment and retention and begin building relationships with local community colleges to create a pipeline between Hood and these schools.   

Eager said she is excited and also nervous about her appointment as provost.   

“I think it’s always good to have a bit of nerves,” Eager said. “I’m excited too, honestly, because my son’s going to be …coming fall as a freshman.”   

Eager said that this appointment came at a great time for her family as she and her son will be starting new chapters of their lives.   

The provost said her goal is to see Hood thrive.   

“I really think Hood is a special place, and sometimes people don’t know about Hood, even if they’ve lived in Frederick their whole life,” Eager said. “I kind of want to make it a situation where people can’t not know about Hood.”   

Eager expressed her appreciation to those who were part of the process that led to her appointment.   

“I would just like to say that I’m really honored to be selected for this position on a permanent basis,” Eager said. “I really appreciate the work of the search committee, you know, even though I was an internal candidate, they asked me a lot of great questions.”   

The provost also acknowledged that her job becomes a team effort to make decisions that are best for the college and the students.   

“Even though it’s a one-person job in some ways, it’s always a team effort, no matter what initiative or what project we’re trying to work on,” Eager said. “I would just like to reinforce that it’s really a team of talented people that make this college work and function.”   

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