Associate Provost

About

Biography

Steven P. Dandaneau is Associate Provost at Colorado State University and Executive Director of the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities (UERU). In these roles, Dandaneau provides executive leadership for a national consortium of leading research universities focused on innovation in undergraduate education and collaborates with colleagues to strengthen the undergraduate experience at CSU.

Dandaneau previously served as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies at Kansas State University; Associate Provost and Director of the Chancellor’s Honors and Halsam Scholars Programs at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; visiting professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park; and Director of the University Honors & John W. Berry Sr. Scholars Programs at the University of Dayton.

Steve resides in Fort Collins and has yet to summit Longs Peak.

Publications

Main Works: A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization (SUNY 1996); A Wrong Life: Studies in Lifeworld-Grounded Critical Theory, co-authored with Maude Falcone (JAI 1998); Taking It Big: Developing Sociological Consciousness in Postmodern Times (Pine Forge 2001); "C. Wright Mills: Exact Imagination, Late Work," in The Routledge International Handbook of C. Wright Mills Studies (Routledge 2021); "Constraint and Variety: David Riesman and the Sociology of Higher Education," in The Anthem Companion to David Riesman, Peter Kivisto, ed. (Anthem 2025); editor, The Equity/Excellence Imperative in Action: Fostering Student Success in Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press 2026); forthcoming, co-editor with Gregory L. Heileman, Curricular Analytics and Higher Education: Analyzing a Hidden Barrier to Student Success (Routledge); Series Editor, Advancing Equity and Excellence in Undergraduate Education: A Focus on Research Universities (Routledge).

Recent Works: Say Hey Little Prince: A Novel (Owl Canyon Press 2020), The Professor Will See You Now (Owl Canyon Press 2022), and other occasional fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as editorials (e.g., "Concern Over A.I.'s Capacity for Autonomy is a Sane Response," in University World News [2025] and "Stop Labeling Students 'First Gen,'" in Inside Higher Education [2025]), and shorter studies (e.g., "Afterword" to Building a Culture of Teaching Excellence at a Research-Intensive Institution, forthcoming as a Purdue University-focused special issue of New Directions for Teaching and Learning); "A Phenomenological Theory of Change in Higher Education," in Change Magazine [2023]).

First Generation Story

Steve was a first-generation Pell-grant recipient undergraduate student at Michigan State University, an experience which undergirds his former service on the Advisory Board of the NASPA Center for First-Generation Student Success and his 2021 chapter “Unpacking First-Gen. Discourse: A Sociological Perspective,” in At the Intersection: Understanding and Supporting First Generation Students, edited by Rob Longwell-Grice and Hope Longwell-Grice. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Press. Pp. 25-38. Steve received the First Scholars First Generation Champion award in 2018.