U. Texas post isn't a lock, Chodorow says

The provost will step down December 31 regardless of whether he secures the job. Although Penn's campus buzzes with rumors that Provost Stanley Chodorow is a lock for the presidency of the University of Texas at Austin, officials there insist he has no edge over the other finalists for the position. The simultaneous announcement Friday of Chodorow's decision to resign and his position as one of five finalists for the presidency led some people to assume he knew he would receive the bid. That, apparently, is not the case. "There are absolutely no front-runners," said Lowell Lebermann, who chairs the UT-Austin advisory committee responsible for choosing a new president. And Chodorow would only acknowledge that he "has a decent chance" at the appointment. "The reason why I'm resigning is not because anyone has assured me I have a job in Texas," Chodorow said Saturday. Instead, he said he stepped down because he did not want to juggle his administrative role with the demands of a public search. But because Chodorow won't officially leave his post until the end of December, he will in fact continue as Penn's provost during the Texas search process. Lebermann described Chodorow's decision to resign as "wonderfully honorable," adding that he was unaware that any other finalist had plans to resign. "He explained to us that he would feel obligated to resign his post if he decided to go forward with our search," Lebermann said. Although Chodorow's decision would let him assume the presidency at the beginning of next semester, his availability doesn't make him a more likely choice, Lebermann said. Last year, Chodorow remained as provost while under consideration for posts at the University of Michigan, the University of Arizona and the University of California at Los Angeles. But at the time he had never publicly said his ultimate goal was simply to become a president -- as he has now. Regardless of whether his ultimate goal is the Texas post or simply a promotion, Chodorow has been quite committed to this search. In the past several months, he has visited Austin twice, and the interview process will send him there two more times in what Ledermann described as a "fairly laborious process." During his next visit later this month, Chodorow will meet with deans, faculty and students. Later, he will return for a series of interviews with the school's Board of Regents. The Regents will reach a final decision by late November or early December, Lebermann said. Chodorow would make a "terrific president," said Annenberg School for Communication Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who taught at UT-Austin for three years. "Texas would be lucky to get him," she added. But a presidency there would be "a rough job," given the size of the institution. One of the largest public universities in the country, UT-Austin has a student population of more than 48,000. "I think he would be much happier here, as provost," Jamieson said. If he does not receive the UT-Austin position or "any other position on the horizon," Chodorow said he might return to full-time teaching at Penn.