The search to find a replacement for current School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston is now under way after his March announcement that he will step down in December.
A search committee, chaired by School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Eduardo Glandt, was announced by the President's and Provost's offices. Other committee members include faculty, students and University Trustee and SAS Board of Overseers Chairman Christopher Browne.
Though the committee has already begun to meet, it has yet to develop specific search criteria, a necessary step before the launch of the search.
"The description of the job will be generated in part by the committee itself as it works through the first few meetings," University Provost Robert Barchi said. "The key qualities that they're looking for will be in fact determined by the search committee."
The group is charged with finding a new SAS dean before Preston steps down in December -- which will require the members to meet and work throughout the summer.
"We'd like to report to the president and the provost sometime in the fall," Glandt said. "The intent is to work through the summer nonstop so we can report in the fall."
Despite the fact that the final criteria have yet to be worked out, Glandt explained some of the most important characteristics for a dean of SAS.
"The person has to have scholarship and has to know scholarship because the dean leads the hiring of faculty, and it takes a scholar to know another scholar," Glandt said. He added that leadership and fundraising skills are also essential.
Preston agreed that one of the greatest demands placed upon the new dean will be financial.
"In today's landscape of higher education, the major challenges will be to maintain focus and forward movement in a time when there are significant financial pressures on all institutions of higher education," Preston said. "In addition, SAS faces challenges of facilities renewal and renovation" and "the challenge of recruiting and retaining the very, very best faculty members that we possibly can and attracting the best students to work with us, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels."
All stressed that Preston leaves high standards in his wake.
"I am looking for the best of the best of the best, and I think that's what everybody else is looking for," said Real Estate professor and search committee member Georgette Poindexter. "Dr. Preston is an amazing individual" and so will be difficult to replace, she said.
Barchi emphasized that Preston leaves behind a school that is academically, fiscally and physically much stronger than when he assumed the deanship.
"Dr. Preston has left behind a legacy now in his time as dean of taking a school that was in need of significant attention from a financial point of view and from a programmatic point of view and has built it into a school that's on a firm foundation now," he said. "I think the new dean will have an extraordinarily good base to build on, and we should all be giving Dr. Preston a huge vote of thanks for the tremendous job that he's done."
Search committee members are confident, however, that their widespread search will yield an appropriate replacement.
Preston "will leave the school ... in its best shape in many years," Glandt said, which will allow the new dean to "walk in and find a well-oiled machine."
Barchi also expressed his faith in the search committee.
"We know [the search is] going to be thorough, we know it's going to be difficult to choose among the many candidates out there," Barchi said. "But we also have great confidence that the search committee will come up with the very best candidate for Penn."
