Incoming provost begins to 'clock' time in College Hall

Provost-designate Robert Barchi is learning the ins and outs of his post while working on an agenda. When incoming Provost Robert Barchi arrived at his new office this month, his first task was to fix a large, 19th-century grandfather clock that hasn't worked in more than three years. "Now the clock is running and it's on time," Barchi said excitedly. "That's symbolic." Just like the 17th- and 18th-century clocks and watches Barchi repairs and collects in his spare time, the provost's office will tick with similar activity when he officially takes over February 1. Although he is still easing out of his former job as chairperson of the Neuroscience and Neurology departments, Barchi is spending this month in the provost's office learning the ropes of his new job. Above all, the provost-designate said he wants to "take the pulse of the school." In an effort to educate himself as he prepares to move up as the University's chief academic officer, Barchi has met with the deans of each individual school at the University, administrators and some student leaders to discuss their concerns for the future of the University and where to go next. "I'm learning how I might help them achieve their individual goals," he said. He has already indicated three major areas as his focal points. Barchi pointed to interdisciplinary programs and provost-sponsored "intellectual enrichment events" as initiatives which would impact the University as a "community of scholars." Emphasizing a desire to maintain and improve the University as both a "collegial" and "academic" environment, Barchi said he also plans to continue the initiatives laid out in the Agenda for Excellence -- a five-year academic and financial plan released by University President Judith Rodin in 1995 -- and will also be moving forward with his own strategic planning for the next five years. "It is about the appropriate time to look onto the next page [of the Agenda]," he said. Even as he prepares to tackle Penn's academic strategic planning, the 52-year-old still makes time to run regularly, ski and row on the Schuylkill River. But don't for a minute think that College Hall was where North Philadelphia-bred Barchi pictured himself a few decades ago. As the captain of the football team and a defenseman on the lacrosse team during his undergraduate days at Georgetown University, Barchi was never involved in university politics. With no immediate interest in returning to Philadelphia after his college graduation, Barchi concedes that it was an innovative dual degree program at Penn that lured him back. He earned a doctorate in 1972 and his medical degree one year later. He then joined the Neurology Department faculty in 1974 and hasn't left the University since. Barchi said he remained at Penn despite offers from other institutions, "because I can do things at Penn that I could not do at [other schools]." Currently residing in the nearby suburb of Gladwyne with his wife -- also a Penn neurologist -- and his two high-school-aged children, his family cares for a menagerie of pets, including a dog, two rabbits, two lizards and a bird. He said he wants people to remember his time as provost, instead of remembering him as an individual. "I would like people to remember this as a time of excitement, a time of collegial dialogue, a time when we pushed the envelope on what an academic institution can do," he explained.

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