Behind-the-scenes player recounts role at U.

Since 1989, John Gould has had offices in College Hall, the Mellon Bank building and at 3401 Walnut Street while holding various positions at the University. In every office, Gould has enjoyed being out of the spotlight and behind the scenes, often serving in only an interim capacity. Despite this, he has witnessed and taken part in many changes at the University. Currently, Gould serves as interim vice president for human resources -- and does not know what will come next. Gould, who began his career as a history professor, first became involved in administrative duties at Haverford and continued in this capacity when he arrived at the University five years ago. "Penn was exciting because it was a tremendous learning opportunity for me," he said. "What I expected to find was a big place, anonymous, and therefore no one really cares. "I was really surprised to find the degree to which people were really devoted to the University," he added. Gould said he was particularly struck by the differences in emphasis between the University and Haverford. Constituencies are dealt with more than the individual, and "sometimes confrontation occurs before conversation." "We're working on that," he added. "Because of its size, there are more things going wrong and more things going right all the time here." Gould first served as former President Sheldon Hackney's chief of staff, taking on responsibilities ranging from budgetary decisions and planning to coordinating issues and agendas and troubleshooting. "Sheldon's office was really set up like a congressperson's office," he said. "We responded to issues as they came up and a lot of issues came to seek resolution." In 1992, Hackney asked Gould to take over the Interim Executive Vice President's office, left vacant by Marna Whittington's departure. "Marna set a very strong framework so I could step in and keep things moving," he said, adding that when former Executive Vice President Janet Hale took over the office, he stayed on for three months to support her in the beginning of her term. Hale faced a troubled 16 months in the office before she left last August. "Janet came in and began to raise a different kind of question so everything changed a bit," Gould said. "It was extremely unfortunate that her tenure was so short, because one would really like to have continuity." During his time in the executive vice presidency, and while aiding Hale in her new position, Gould watched the University deal with the "water buffalo" incident and The Daily Pennsylvanian confiscation. "I felt very sorry for us," he said. "The press got a hold of a set of issues that became interrelated in their minds, and people took advantage of Penn's difficulties to make their own point." But Gould said the University was not harmed on a long-term basis by the incidents. "Given our engagement with the issues, it is very interesting how quickly we moved on, how long ago it seems now, and by every measurable index, the University was not harmed," he added. "We have had a stunning recovery." After Gould completed his time aiding Hale, he returned to the President's Office as vice president and director of University planning. He served in that capacity as a senior advisor to former Interim President Claire Fagin and carried on many of the responsibilities he had while serving under Hackney. "I had experience with lots of issues so we worked together on where she wanted to go," he said. "In addition, I worked on the planning side with [former Interim Provost] Marvin Lazerson." Gould said he began to develop an approach to the University's relationship with West Philadelphia, a project which Vice President for Government and Community Relations Carol Scheman has taken over. In addition, he studied student services. "Students have a number of bureaucracies that they have to navigate," Gould said. "Students lose out potentially because? students need a unitary response to a whole range of issues and problems they have."

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