For new provost, 'a series of incredible opportunities'

Robert Barchi discusses his 25 years at Penn, his hopes for the future and the 'learning curve' of his new position. Robert Barchi discusses his 25 years at Penn, his hopes for the future and the 'learning curve' of his new position.The Daily Pennsylvanian · DP: What are the things, academically, that you currently see as not having been done, and what are the things you've identified as priorities for your tenure as provost? RB: First of all, let me say that we are at one of the premier institutions in the country, and one of the premier academic institutions in the world. So when we talk about things that we need to do and we want to improve, we're talking about how do we take a great institution and make it better, as opposed to how do we take an institution that has major problems and fix them? What I see here is not a series of problems that haven't been dealt with, but a series of incredible opportunities to make this place at the cutting edge of where education is going? Clearly, the things that interest me the most, and have interested me throughout my career, are programs that bridge gaps between disciplines, between schools, between levels of education? I think the provost's office, in addition to facilitating the goals of individual schools, is real uniquely placed to be able to develop those interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, inter-school programs that we can leverage from our perspective here. DP: How do see yourself going about settling into the job? How do you begin to acclimate to the issues particular to the liberal arts as well as those particular to undergraduate education? RB: First, let me give you some perspective on where I'm coming from. Although I spent my entire career at the School of Medicine, the programs that I've run have been University-wide programs. I spent 13 years directing the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences, which is a University-wide program [that administers] the Biological Basis of Behavior, which is one of biggest undergraduate majors in the College of Arts and Sciences. I'm not coming from a background of never having taught undergraduates or never having thought about undergraduate education? So I certainly have a major learning curve, as anybody would at this job, for the specific problems of a school like Arts and Sciences and that's going a require a fair amount of education on my part. But I'm not starting from ground zero in terms of that form of education? This is a tremendous university, and even though I've been here for 25 years, I don't think it's possible to know everything that's going on all around. One of the first things I'm going to do in the next month before I over is spend a lot of time talking, a lot of time talking and a lot of time visiting, listening to what the deans have to say, listening to what the faculty has to say, listening to what you guys have to say and trying to develop a clearer image of needs to be done and how it can be done. DP: Can you share with us specifically what some of your goals might be in the first couple of days? RB: I would really rather not get into specifics. I think that since this has just been announced this afternoon, and many of the people that you have consulted haven't been talked to simply because of the timing issues. I think that the first goal has to be to get that consultative process going, and think that in a month we would be able to come out with what I think are my top priorities. I think if I were to try and list them right now without going through the process of consulting with some of your colleagues and some of my colleagues it probably wouldn't be appropriate for me to do it. DP: Are you concerned at all about coming into office with vacancies in Wharton, Engineering, Law and the Fels Center of Government -- four fairly high-profile vacancies? Is that a concern of yours? Do you plan to involve yourself at any phase of the selection process used to fill those positions? RB: I see this more as an opportunity than as a huge problem. In academics there is always turnover. I've run two departments and an institute, and the first time I lost a faculty member to a recruiter from another institution, it just tore my heart out. But you ultimately realize that part of the dynamics of academics is that people will rise up, move on, accept new challenges and at the same time return to the faculty. It's part of the dynamics of life at an institution and it's also part of what makes it fun, what makes it exciting? So I see this as a tremendous opportunity to recruit a few new deans whose ideas I can listen to in the selection process? These are opportunities to bring to Penn fantastic individuals with backgrounds that will blow your socks off. That's what makes this place great. Even though we lose someone like a [outgoing Wharton School Dean] Tom Gerrity back to the faculty, we haven't lost him, and we also have the opportunity to recruit someone like him for the next 10 years with the same kind of drive and the same kind of initiative? DP: On a personal note, can you tell us what makes this the right job for you right now? RB: A month ago I wouldn't have said that this was the right job for me at all. This is not something that was on my radar screen. But I think it's an exciting opportunity. That's what I've been doing my entire career: looking for things that are challenging and things that are opportunities? I think that I have the experience set and the skill set that can facilitate those things, and I certainly get a tremendous amount of pleasure out of seeing that sort of thing grow. To me, the biggest pleasure is in academic innovation and in academic problem-solving? This is academic innovation in spades. Look at it from that point of view and it is a tremendous challenge. It's an opportunity to learn about areas that I don't normally think about in the Medical School, that are intellectually stimulating, to interact with some of the brightest faculty and smartest students in the world, which is what keeps you from ossifying and keeps the brain from sort of shriveling up. DP: So what's different now from a month ago? RB: I just hadn't thought about it, frankly. My thoughts had always been focused on a career path that was looking at [being chief executive officer of a health system and dean of a medical school] and frankly if I had been asked a month ago, as I was, whether the best thing for the school was to have someone from the Medical School be in this job my reaction would have been 'No.' And in fact, that was my first comment. It really took some thinking on my part to realize that there are some tremendous assets to both sides of that question. DP: Do you see yourself ultimately on the track to be president of a university similar to this one -- a large research university? RB: I see this as opening doors to opportunities for me but I'm really not concerned with that right now. That's just not why I'm doing this. I'm not sure where I'll be 10 years from now. From the time I joined the faculty I always thought I'd be someplace else 10 years from now. I've certainly had opportunities -- chairman at Harvard, chairman at University of California at San Francisco, CEO/dean at University of Chicago -- and every time I've chosen to stay at Penn. Speculating on where your career trajectory is going to go I think is idle speculation. You have to enjoy what you're doing every step of the way. I really enjoyed running the departments that I ran and helped to build? DP: Do you think you would be interested in it at some later date? RB: ? I'm interested in a challenging job?. I don't see this as a step that takes me to a university presidency. It's not what I'm looking at; it's not the way I see it. Could that conceivably happen at some point in the future? Yeah, I guess so.