Fmr. provost to head virtual university

Stanley Chodorow was named president of the Calif. Virtual University. Though he did not win any of the vaunted university president posts for which he contended all through 1997, former Penn Provost Stanley Chodorow is finally leaving the University -- and heading home to California for a new job in cyberspace. On September 15, Chodorow will assume the presidency of the California Virtual University, a collaborative effort by nearly 100 California colleges and universities aiming to provide on-line and other forms of distance education. He will base the new venture in San Diego, where he was dean of arts and humanities at that city's branch of the University of California system before coming to Penn in 1994. After failing to win the presidencies of three universities where he won finalist status, Chodorow resigned as Penn's provost in November 1997 while a finalist for the top job at the University of Texas at Austin. The school named University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Provost Larry Faulkner president six weeks later. Chodorow, who is currently in California, will leave his current post as a professor in the History Department effective Monday. In his new role, he will head the board of directors of CVU's private foundation. "I felt it was a good opportunity, and in the meantime they decided that I was the right person to head it," Chodorow said. "It's really a start-up operation, but we've got a lot to start with." The last of Chodorow's 3 1/2 years as Penn's provost was marked by a series of near-misses at achieving his professed goal "to become a president." After contending for the top positions at the University of Michigan, the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Arizona -- all of which went to other candidates -- he withdrew from the presidential search at Tulane University and lost the job at UT-Austin in the closing months of 1997. CVU was launched by California Gov. Pete Wilson in April 1997 as a joint project of the University of California system, the California State University system, the Foundation of California Community Colleges and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities. The four bodies collectively oversee 301 institutions, of which 98 are currently offering more than 1,700 classes through CVU. "I launched the CVU to move California to an environment where quality learning opportunities are available to the greatest number of Californians possible, anywhere, anytime," Wilson said in a statement yesterday. "The new CVU Foundation will benefit greatly from Dr. Chodorow's considerable skills and experience as it works to fulfill this important goal." Unlike the long presidential searches to which Chodorow became acclimated last year, CVU's process was considerably shorter. "I was contacted in the usual way," he said. "But it was very short. As opposed to an ordinary [search], which lasts six or seven months, this only took four or five weeks." "We interviewed what we thought was a very talented group of CEOs," said Foundation of California Community Colleges President Larry Toy, one of CVU's eight board members. "Stan stood out among a group of very talented candidates." As chief executive officer of the CVU Foundation, Chodorow said his main directives will be to develop a market for on-line education and to work with the schools to develop a larger selection of classes. "No institution is very experienced in this yet," Chodorow said. "It's going to be my job to help them develop these programs." Interim Provost Michael Wachter, who took over for Chodorow earlier this year, praised his predecessor for launching "a number of critical initiatives at Penn." "CVU is very fortunate to have someone like Stan, who is so deeply committed to higher ed and to continually pioneering new frontiers for learning," said Wachter, who is heading the University's own distance learning programs. "Stan's grasp of the tremendous possibilities afforded by our new electronic technologies is superb." Chodorow identified the 21st Century Project -- the University's broad-based initiative to increase academic and research opportunities -- and the Perelman Quadrangle construction project as the two University projects of which he is most "proud." However, he emphasized that the increased base of academic and support services he helped create at Penn will be a model for his work at CVU. "These are the kind of services we want to provide," he said. "[But] we have to do it online. We have to use the technology." University President Judith Rodin, who took office the same summer as Chodorow, wished her former chief academic officer well. The two came into office together in 1994. "CVU has chosen a leader with vision and passion for the union of higher education and technology," she said. "I wish Stan the very best in his new endeavor." Given the choice of where in California to construct CVU's headquarters, Chodorow chose San Diego, where he spent 25 years at UC-San Diego. "One of the nice things about being virtual is that you can be anywhere you want to be as long as you have wires and a good airport," he said, adding that he will have to build his offices and his staff from the ground up. "I have a good busy task in front of me," he said.

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