The dean of the law school at the University of Toronto has been named the new University provost, President Amy Gutmann announced Monday.
Effective July 1, Ronald Daniels will join the University administration as Penn's chief academic officer. He will replace Interim Provost Peter Conn, who has held the position since former Provost Robert Barchi left the University in August.
"When Amy made the offer, this was not a difficult decision," Daniels said. "I'm quite anxious to spend time with all of the University's constituencies and get a much better sense of what people want of their institution and ... how I can help."
Gutmann chose Daniels from a list of four candidates presented by the search committee. The committee -- headed by Penn School of Medicine Dean and Executive Vice President for the Health System Arthur Rubenstein -- has been working since September to make recommendations to Gutmann.
"When you see his track record and when you meet him, you have no doubt he has not only enormous achievement, but enormous potential," Gutmann said.
At the University of Toronto, Daniels has been instrumental in increasing the law school's endowment, from $1 million in 1995 to over $57 million today.
He said he plans to apply that same leadership to implementing Gutmann's Penn Compact, her three-pronged plan for the University's future.
"I really think [the Penn Compact] constitutes a very exciting aspiration for the University as a whole," he said. "I love the institution's very self-conscious portrayal of itself."
Daniels also made increasing the availability of financial aid a major part of his work at Toronto. Improving financial aid at Penn is a main tenet of the Penn Compact.
"This is why the Compact really did resonate for me," Daniels said. "The issue of enhanced accessibility I really felt defined my deanship. ... I look forward to bringing that experience to Penn."
Daniels is the third top administrator to leave the University of Toronto this year. He is just the second non-U.S. citizen to be Penn's provost. The first was William Smith of Scotland, the University's first provost, appointed by Benjamin Franklin in 1755.
As provost, one of Daniels' main duties will be recruiting, retaining and "making the faculty morerobust," Gutmann said.
She added that she wants to make Penn a more appealing competitor for professors deciding between peer institutions.
Daniels has worked hard to attract faculty to the University of Toronto's law school -- the student-faculty ratio has gone from 18:1 to 9:1 during his time there.
"Competition for the very best faculty is going to become more and more ferocious," Daniels said. "It's going to be very important that Penn is able to build on many of its existing strengths, be confident that it has not only the resource base, but the intellectual environment ... to attract [faculty] to Penn."
One of Daniels' first major challenges, he said, will be "having a sense of the institution's values and history and its soul."
He plans to visit campus before officially taking the helm as provost to meet with faculty, students and administrators.
"We live in a time when the university mission in contemporary society has never been more important," Daniels said. "The ability to be associated with that institution is something that I regard as a privilege."
