Wharton, Law School deans resign

The resignations are the latest in a series of high-level departures. Yesterday's resignations of two of the University's longest-serving and most-respected academic officials doubled the number of vacancies in Penn's academic leadership -- and it's unclear when they will be filled. Wharton School Dean Thomas Gerrity and Law School Dean Colin Diver both announced that they would leave their posts at the end of the current academic and fiscal year, which concludes June 30, 1999. The outgoing deans maintain that their positions will be filled by the time they leave their offices in Steinberg-Dietrich and Silverman halls, respectively, nearly nine months from now. But University President Judith Rodin cautioned against setting any deadline for filling the open positions, and stressed that she was "not going to get locked into a firm prediction" about when new deans would be named. Penn officials are still trying to find a new dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and have also failed to appoint a permanent provost, the University's chief academic officer. Interim officials are currently serving in both positions. Still, Rodin emphasized that the University's academic programs are not facing a leadership void. "Dean Diver and Dean Gerrity are very much in place," she said. "I don't see any void in the leadership, and they've indicated that they don't intend to become lame-duck leaders, and I don't intend for them to be." Yesterday's simultaneous announcements were not purposefully planned, University spokesperson Ken Wildes said. Both deans had finalized their plans for resignation several weeks ago, he said. "There was no deliberate planning," Wildes said. "The deans came to their conclusions back then, but we weren't ready to announce their resignations." When former Provost Stanley Chodorow resigned last October, effective at the end of that year, administrators appointed a faculty- and student-composed search committee to find a permanent replacement. But despite nine months of work, neither the committee nor Penn officials have publicly named a candidate, either from inside Penn or from another school. Former Deputy Provost Michael Wachter has been serving as provost for nearly 10 months on an interim basis. Chodorow was appointed provost in April 1994, about 14 months after Michael Aiken announced he would step down. Gerrity, who will continue to serve as chairperson of the provost search committee, refused to comment on any of the body's deliberations, citing confidentiality rules. He said only that the committee was "continuing" its work in selecting a candidate. At the same time, no search committee has yet been named to find a replacement for former Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington, who resigned May 21, effective August 15. Rodin said that the Engineering faculty will be meeting soon to appoint four of their colleagues to the committee, after which Rodin herself will appoint four additional faculty members and two students to round out the body. Chemical Engineering Professor Eduardo Glandt has been serving as the school's interim dean since Farrington left. The slots on the search committees for the open Wharton and Law posts will be filled in largely the same manner, with a mixture of faculty-appointed professors and students and faculty members appointed by the president. Diver added that one or two alumni would also serve on the panel choosing his successor. Wildes said that he did expect Gerrity and Diver's shoes to be filled by next summer in a process smoother than that which has surrounded Farrington's departure for the presidency of Lehigh University. "I think that's the expectation," Wildes said of the timetable for filling the two newly open positions. "It's not like Greg Farrington -- he had to leave and he had to leave in short order." "That's a little bit harder on an institution because you can't launch a search that quickly," he added. The fact that both deans' resignations will not take effect until next summer is further evidence that the double announcement was a coincidence, Wildes said. "You could read something into it if both guys were stepping down tomorrow," he said. "[But] this is like Michael Jordan. They now have the opportunity to take a victory tour."