Barchi reflects on first year

The provost has received mostly high marks from students and faculty about his tenure. When he walked into the provost's office one year ago this week, Robert Barchi outlined an ambitious set of goals to enrich and develop Penn's academic environment. Although much of the past year has been spent dealing with other University issues -- the creation of the new alcohol policy and the Health System's financial crisis -- Barchi said he quite likes his position as Penn's chief academic officer -- even though he has a lot more to accomplish. "I'm enjoying myself tremendously," Barchi said, while noting that he still has a long way to go and has, even now, "barely gotten comfortable with the job." Barchi, who served as the chairman of the Neuroscience and Neurology Department in the Medical School, was appointed to his current position in December 1998 by University President Judith Rodin following an 11-month national search. Before taking office last February, the provost outlined four major goals for his tenure. The goals included fostering and encouraging innovation in education and research, strengthening the office of the provost, advancing Rodin's Agenda for Excellence and enriching the intellectual climate of the University. Thus far, Barchi has made strides with all four goals, fostering research opportunities, reorganizing the provostial offices and sponsoring a lecture series. But outside of his own outlined plans, Barchi's first year may be best remembered for his extensive involvement with the revamping of the University's alcohol policies last spring following the on-campus death of 1994 College graduate Michael Tobin. Tobin's death came only weeks after Barchi assumed his role as provost, and he quickly became the administration's primary figure involved with the controversy surrounding the temporary alcohol ban. Wharton senior and former Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Bill Conway said he was impressed with the way in which Barchi handled the concerns of both the students and the administration. "Despite the apparent hostility, we all came together pretty well," said Conway, who served on the provost's Working Group on Alcohol Abuse, which formulated the new policy. Barchi acknowledged that being thrust into the center of a massive campus-wide controversy "wasn't in [his] short-term agenda." "It fell to me to be the facilitator, the mediator, and that's really how I look at my role here," Barchi said. "It took a lot of skill and management prowess? to keep focused," said College senior Andrew Exum, the former Interfraternity Council executive vice president and a member WGAA. The alcohol policy is still far from complete and administrators admit that several elements of the policy -- namely, the BYOB stipulation -- need to be reconsidered. And the University and student groups are still working to increase the non-alcoholic social programming outlined in the plan. Despite the extensive work Barchi had to do on the alcohol policy, he did still find time to address his specific goals over the past 12 months. In his goal of fostering educational and research innovations, Barchi has worked to develop the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. This fall, he announced plans to develop a research hub for undergraduates. The provost has repeated his second goal -- strengthening the role of the provost's office -- numerous times. According to administrators, the provost's office -- which had been in flux for almost two years -- was plagued with poor organization when Barchi took over. "The office of the provost, as he walked into it, was a very badly defined job," Engineering School Dean Eduardo Glandt said. "I've seen the rationalization of what happens in the provost's organization in College Hall." One of Barchi's most important organizational moves was his appointment last July of English Professor Peter Conn as deputy provost.