Vice provost vacates post amidst surprise

Vice Provost Kim Morrisson confirmed yesterday that she is leaving the Office of the Provost, effective immediately, a decision she made in August. University officials reacted to the announcement with surprise. Many administrators said they did not hear of Morrisson's planned departure until yesterday. Morrisson will continue to teach courses in the English Department, and will serve as a consultant to the University on restructuring the undergraduate experience. She said she will not soon forget her tenure at the University. "There is much that is rewarding at Penn," Morrisson said yesterday. "It is a wonderful institution and that is why I have stayed here for as long as I have. It's an institution that is going somewhere." Morrisson first came to the University as a graduate student in 1968. She began working in the Office of the Provost in 1972. From 1978 until November 1993, Morrisson served as vice provost for university life. She stepped down from that position to become vice provost in the Office of the Provost. Her replacement as VPUL, Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, said last night she had not been informed of Morrisson's departure. Since President Judith Rodin took office last year, Morrisson has served as co-executive director of the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education with English Professor Robert Lucid. Provost Stanley Chodorow formed PCUE to develop and implement improvements to the University as a part of the more recent 21st Century Undergraduate Education initiative, which was announced by Chodorow and Rodin last October. PCUE released a report last spring that detailed plans for the University's future, including ways to unify the undergraduate experience by combining academic issues with extracurricular life. Some of these plans called for organizing undergraduates into collegiate systems. Morrisson will now work with Lucid and the Council of Undergraduate Deans to continue PCUE's work, Chodorow said last night. Her new duties will focus on implementing a collegiate system, but not necessarily organized around residences. Morrisson said once PCUE released its report, her role as vice provost came to an end. "The work I could do is really finished," she said. "The planning roles I was involved in are being absorbed by the deputy provost. This is the right thing for me to do at this moment." Chodorow said he was pleased with the work Morrisson did on the PCUE report, and is excited that she will still work with the administration. "I have the highest opinion of Dr. Morrisson, and I wanted to keep her involved, at least until she finds a position suitable to her experience and ability," he said. Morrisson said she expects to find another position, but that at this point, "it's too premature" to say where she will go. English Department Undergraduate Chairperson Al Filreis said Morrisson will teach a course with Lucid this fall, and a graduate course with Lucid in the spring. He added that the department would welcome Morrisson if she wanted to pursue additional teaching duties. "She's a very talented person and a good teacher," he said.