Gutmann prepares to take helm of University

As summer begins and July 1 approaches, University President-elect Amy Gutmann is working to juggle two jobs at once: provost at Princeton University and Penn president-in-training.

"Essentially she's still carrying a full plate here" at Princeton, said Princeton Vice Provost for Administration Joann Mitchell, who will serve as Gutmann's chief of staff at Penn. "Actually, she's carrying a little bit more than that now, because she's acting to oversee facilities and human resources -- which ordinarily would report to the vice president for administration," a position Princeton is currently looking to fill, Mitchell said.

Since her formal election at February's meeting of the University Board of Trustees, Gutmann has divided her time between Princeton and Penn, traveling to Philadelphia each week to meet with officials and acclimate herself to the University. Though her job at Princeton is still her No. 1 priority, Gutmann explained that much of her time at Princeton is also spent on Penn-related business.

"I'm doing quite a bit of preparation for Penn," Gutmann said. "I'm here [at Princeton] on the ground, but in between the things I have to do at Princeton, I'm spending time on the phone with Penn people and being briefed."

Despite the demands of preparing for the intense job of leading a mammoth and complex organization like Penn, Gutmann still has much left to finish up at Princeton. With budgets to set for the following year, faculty recruitments to clinch and policy issues to wrap up, Gutmann has had no shortage of items on her Princeton to-do list.

In addition to finishing the Princeton projects to which she has dedicated her time, Gutmann also must work on transitioning to Princeton's next provost -- Christopher Eisgruber, a professor in Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values -- and transferring her projects to either Eisgruber or Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman.

"I'm trying to make it a really smooth transition to the new provost," Gutmann said.

While Gutmann has been learning the ropes at Penn from University President Judith Rodin, she has also had a bit of a role reversal as she prepares Eisgruber for the job of Princeton provost.

"He's trailing me at virtually all my meetings so he sees what I do," Gutmann said. "I'm meeting with him periodically to transfer the knowledge that I have to him."

And Eisgruber has many projects to take over once Gutmann leaves.

There are several "continuing projects of the current administration," Eisgruber said. "For example, we're in the midst of a plan to create new residential colleges here and improve quality of residential life. That's something that Amy Gutmann has been very much involved in ... and that's something that I'll be involved with."

"I think things are going to go very smoothly," Eisgruber added.

Though Gutmann is understandably short on free time, she has made room in her schedule for farewell celebrations similar to those that have kept Rodin busy.

Gutmann recently joined fellow faculty of Princeton's University Center for Human Values -- which Gutmann founded -- for a celebratory dinner in a newly renovated space on Princeton's campus. Gutmann will also make time over a long weekend for a brief trip to the Caribbean with her husband, Columbia University professor Michael Doyle.

When it comes down to Gutmann's last week at Princeton, all of her energy will be focused on packing. Yet Gutmann will be unable to move directly into the University president's house, Eisenlohr Hall, at 3812 Walnut St., because the heating system is being repaired and the building is being made handicapped accessible. In the meantime, the president-elect plans to live in an apartment near campus.

The University has assured Gutmann that she will be able to move into the residence after four months of construction.

"They promised me that I could move in by Halloween so I could have my first president's Halloween party, so I'm counting on that," Gutmann said. "I don't know what my costume will be yet."

Before she comes to Penn, Gutmann is also working on the finishing touches of a revision to the fourth edition of her book, Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments. Gutmann will write an introduction as part of her revisions and is hoping to complete the project before she arrives at Penn in July.

For now, Gutmann and others in the Provost's Office are focused on the hectic month of May at Princeton, where commencement ceremonies will take place at the end of the month.

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