U. secretary's office preparing for Rodin transition

When President-elect Judith Rodin walks onto campus this morning she will be taking important first steps towards shaping her presidency. But for the transition team that will help guide her through the vast realm of the University and the complex issues facing it, the work began a month ago. In December, when the University Board of Trustees confirmed Rodin's appointment, the Consultative Committee for Selection of a President -- a division of the University Secretary's Office that had been assisting the Presidential Search Committee --Ewas converted into Rodin's transition team. Sherill Rosoff, staff coordinator for that consultative committee, and University Secretary Barbara Stevens are heading up the transition effort. "We're working with the deans and later we will be working with various student leaders in putting together stuff on key issues," Stevens said yesterday. "[Rodin] will be briefed on all of these issues." While she, Rosoff and other members of the transition team are pulling together plans, records and statistics to acquaint Rodin with every corner of the University, Stevens said Rodin will be trying to meet as many people as possible. Rodin will be having the first of these introductory meetings today, speaking with Interim President Claire Fagin, Interim Provost Marvin Lazerson, deans, Faculty Senate leaders, the Provost's Search Committee and other officials. But the rest of the introductions will have to wait until Rodin returns to campus after the University's spring break. Still provost of Yale University, Rodin has a budget process and other responsibilities to attend to before she can sit down and deal with the serious issue of transition. In the meantime, it is up to the transition team to keep Rodin informed of events unfolding at the University. These events will include the preliminary report of the Commission on Strengthening the Community -- due out next week-- as well as the decisions of Fagin and Lazerson as they move to accomplish a number of goals before they leave office in June, Stevens said. "This is not easy to do," Rosoff said. "We have to understand that she is leaving a provostship at Yale and has to make the best of her time." Rosoff said that while the transition team is trying to make their work as inclusive of all segments of the University as possible, there are practical limitations. "Everyone wants to talk with her and meet her," she said. "We are going to have to say no sometimes and we just ask everybody's understanding." There will be "plenty of time" for all members of the University community to meet with Rodin after she officially assumes the presidency this summer, Rosoff added. Rodin will be making more frequent trips to campus in the spring, Stevens said, adding that she will be given a room in the University Secretary's office until she moves into College Hall in June. Rodin's transition team may also be called on to assist the University's new provost, who will be named within the next two months after Rodin picks from among the finalists selected by the search committee. Some believe having two new top officials may complicate the transition, but Stevens said she is not sure. "I don't know," she said. "We haven't gotten that far in our thinking." In addition to the provost selection, another important decision that will be Rodin's alone to make is the choice of the University's new athletic director. Fagin's office is playing only a small role in the transition, something which pleases everyone involved. "We didn't want the University to come to a complete halt because of the transition," Stevens said. "The interim president and provost are working on a whole range of issues we want to see done. It is very much in everyone's interest that things should keep moving." Stevens said it is premature to speculate on whether Rodin will appoint new presidential assistants. Current assistants to the president nervously said they are too busy to worry too much about the future. "As I look out over the horizon I see it dotted with question marks," said Linda Hyatt, executive director of the President's Office, earlier this month, referring to where she envisioned herself in one year's time. "Luckily, there is not enough Windex to clean off the crystal ball." Transition officials said they want people to view the transition period as a time for Rodin to learn about the University and absorb not only facts about its makeup, but also its culture. "It's like reading days -- a long extended reading period for Rodin," Rosoff joked.