Barchi takes office as the University's 31st provost

Several former Penn provosts are serving as models for Barchi as he assumes his new office. While Provost Robert Barchi is working to successfully launch the University into the future, he has said he plans to keep the spirit of past Penn provosts by his side. Looking to those past officials for "wisdom" and "advice," Barchi specifically cited recent former provosts Eliot Stellar, Vartan Gregorian and Thomas Ehrlich as leaders he hopes to emulate during his tenure as the University's chief academic officer. "Those are the kinds of people that brought me along and I think contributed tremendously to the growth of the University," Barchi said. Stellar, who died of cancer six years ago, served as provost from 1972 to 1978. Gregorian, the former president of Brown University and current president of the Carnegie Corporation in New York, followed immediately after and stayed in the provost's office until 1980. And Ehrlich, the former president of Indiana University and now a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, served as Penn's provost from 1981 to 1987. Stellar especially was both a friend and mentor when Barchi first became a faculty member of the University in 1972, the new provost said. "In many ways [Stellar] was a father figure for me and if I could be ever a quarter of what he was, that would be an achievement," Barchi said, stressing Stellar's "remarkable intellect" and commitment to the needs of "his colleagues and students." Barchi has said that he wants his tenure as provost to be as academically successful as Stellar's was. Stellar presided during a time when the College for Women was fully integrated into the men's school, together forming the co-educational School of Arts and Sciences. Stellar dedicated himself to the development of the "one-University concept," which worked to implement interdisciplinary programs. But Barchi also looks to the past provost for his "stellar" interpersonal relations with the faculty and students, stressing that Stellar focused on consulting with those constituents and listening carefully to their concerns. "He was an excellent problem solver, but the first thing he did was listen," Barchi said. "Eliot was a scholar. He brought to the job a deep and thoughtful approach." Additionally, the 52-year-old former chairperson of the Medical School's Neurology and Neuroscience departments noted that Stellar focused his energy not on the advancement of his own career but instead on the needs of students. "Eliot was always looking outside himself to see what he could do," Barchi noted. Both Barchi and Stellar worked at the Medical School before moving into the University's top academic post. After stepping down in 1978, Stellar served as chairperson of the Medical School's Anatomy Department until his death in 1993. "[Stellar] was a wonderful person," said Pathology Professor Peter Nowell, stressing that the former provost was liked by "everyone on both sides of Spruce Street." Stellar was immediately followed by Vartan Gregorian, who had previously served as the first dean of SAS. According to Executive Assistant to the Provost Linda Koons, Gregorian was very popular among faculty and students. Through his "charisma and intellectual excitement, [Gregorian] could really lead people," she said. During Gregorian's brief two-year tenure, the University saw an increase in research funding and the addition of new faculty members in SAS. Gregorian, who was seeking to be the successor to then-University President Martin Meyerson, left Penn in 1980 when Sheldon Hackney received the appointment. Some students and faculty hoped for and expected Gregorian to be selected. "Gregorian was a magnificent provost. He cared about all aspects of the University," History Professor Alan Kors said. "It was a tragedy beyond tragedies that he did not become president of the University." Gregorian, who served as president of Brown University from 1988 until the end of 1997, currently is the president of the grant-making Carnegie Corporation in New York. Two interim provosts oversaw the school before Thomas Ehrlich, then dean of Stanford Law School, took office in 1981. Ehrlich -- the first provost selected from outside the University since 1868 -- established the Faculty Council on Undergraduate Education. "He led efforts to enhance the undergraduate experience," said Assistant to the President Steve Steinberg, who stressed that Ehrlich tried to "build a sense of Penn as an undergraduate institution." Programs initiated under Ehrlich included the addition of academic programs to freshman orientation as well as the creation of freshman seminars. Ehrlich left Penn in 1987 to assume the presidency of Indiana University. He left that position seven years later. After a long career in University administration, Ehrlich said he enjoyed his tenure at Penn and that Barchi has received "a wonderful job." "I enjoyed it enormously," Ehrlich said. "It's a wonderful job for anyone interested in institutional architecture." Like Barchi, who has discussed the future of the University with faculty and students in detail over the last month, Ehrlich said "the thing I like best is working with people."