When University President-Elect Amy Gutmann takes office on July 1, she will immediately face the challenge of selecting what will likely be the most important appointment of her presidency -- the provost.
As the University's chief academic officer, the provost is responsible for everything from faculty appointments to major budget planning to student initiatives.
"The provost is the major spokesperson for the academic component of the University, which is its core mission," said School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston. "The new provost will play a major role in shaping the intermediate future of the University academically."
When current Penn Provost Robert Barchi announced last week that he would leave Penn to become Thomas Jefferson University's next president on Sept. 1, administrators were hardly surprised. Since the provost and the president work so closely together on a range of issues that affect the University at large, it is not unusual for the provost to vacate his or her office when the outgoing president does the same.
However, the timing of Barchi's departure places greater stress on Gutmann than she might have anticipated. Gutmann must work to appoint an interim provost while a large-scale search for a permanent occupant takes shape -- and make some of her most important policy decisions from her first day.
From the time she accepted her nomination as Penn's eighth president to her official election by the University Board of Trustees, Gutmann has pledged to take time to get to know Penn before she makes any major strategic plans for the future. But faced with the task of selecting a provost, Gutmann will be forced to think quickly and make key decisions impacting the direction of her administration for the next few years.
As provost, Barchi worked closely to overhaul the University's alcohol policy weeks after he took office. He went on to establish centers and institutes around Penn, including the Center for Undergraduate Research, which encourages research among undergraduates -- one of the focuses of his tenure. In addition, Barchi shaped the current faculty and administration, making key recruitments and altering the structure of the provost's office.
Barchi "has been a great partner to me in all of the strategic planning and a great leader of the deans," Rodin told The Daily Pennsylvanian last week. "Clearly, they have relied heavily on his advice and counsel, and we will all miss him."
Though Barchi currently has a wide range of responsibilities and has been influential in University policy since he took office in Feb. 1999, the responsibilities of the Office of the Provost are somewhat elastic. In addition to deciding what type of person Gutmann wishes to install as provost, she must also decide the range of responsibilities that person will enjoy. As a result, she must decide the limitations of her own office and those around her as she searches for her replacement. The provost's role in academic policy and initiatives and administrative recruitment will be determined by Gutmann -- and her decision will have an incredible impact on her presidency.
The interaction of the president and provost "as much depends on the interests and areas of expertise and the working style of the provost as it does the president," Barchi said. "That really is a model that will have to be created by the new president and by the new provost that she ultimately identifies."
Though Gutmann has yet to determine specifically the qualities she seeks in a provost, she explained some of the characteristics that are most important to her.
"Generally, the provost is one of the most important members of the president's team," Gutmann said to The Daily Pennsylvanian last week. "I'm going to be looking for somebody who has the qualities that will help Penn forward in my administration."
"There are a whole set of qualities of understanding the academic and the administrative and the budgetary sides of Penn that are going to be very important," she added.
The work that Barchi and Rodin -- along with faculty, administrators and trustees -- put into the strategic plan will extend into the Gutmann administration as she prepares to implement the plan.
"I think the new president will have a lot of influence in terms of which areas of the plan she might want to emphasize and expand on or put a different spin on," Barchi said. "It's a very broad document so it's not terribly constraining."
Whatever she decides, Gutmann must work to identify someone with whom she can confidently tackle a wide range of issues.
"It's critical that the two people work hand in glove," Barchi said. "I can't overemphasize the importance of the personal match that has to exist between the provost and the president."
