By selecting Clifford Stanley of the U.S. Marine Corps as Penn's next executive vice president, University President Judith Rodin has once again shown a penchant for looking in the most unlikely places for this crucially important administrative position.
This is not to say that Stanley is not an excellent choice. Highly sought after to lead the Philadelphia public school system, among others, he clearly has the potential to do a fantastic job.
Rodin's hiring of John Fry in 1995 signaled her desire to remake the position of executive vice president, and Fry, previously of consulting giant Coopers and Lybrand and currently president of Franklin and Marshall College, certainly did that, revolutionizing the way Penn did business and setting the University on its current, corporate-minded track.
Stanley could do much the same. In spite of his extensive experience, he comes from neither an academic nor a business background. Ideally, this fresh perspective will enable him to change those aspects of the Fry administration that have failed while retaining much of Fry's hugely successful legacy.
To begin with, Stanley must face the unfinished aspects of Fry's grand plan -- most importantly the movie theater at 40th and Walnut streets and the unacceptably high number of retail vacancies on campus.
He will also take control of Dining Services and its buckets of red ink and shrinking customer base. Stanley and Vice President for Business Services Leroy Nunery must find some way to reform dining and make it an asset rather than a liability to this campus.
And there is, of course, the always delicate matter of community relations. During his tenure, Fry managed to both improve community relations and alienate community members. Stanley will have to tread a fine line when dealing with Penn's West Philadelphia neighbors.
The infusion of fresh blood, in the form of Clifford Stanley, into the executive vice president's office should itself do a great deal to jumpstart campus development, which had in Fry's final years flagged a bit. But it is in both Stanley's and the University's best interest for him to also reevaluate Penn's corporate focus, which has at time made this school seem more like a public company than an educational institution.
The academic environment is a delicate and fragile one. It is our hope that Stanley will both revitalize Penn's business side while undoing some of the more unfortunate parts of John Fry's plan.
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