Search committee formed to find new provost

The search is officially on for Penn's next provost.

In a memo sent out to faculty members last Wednesday, University President Amy Gutmann announced the formation of an ad hoc consultative committee that, along with Gutmann, will select a new provost to succeed Ron Daniels.

Daniels will become president of Johns Hopkins University on March 1.

Chaired by Wharton Dean Thomas Robertson, the committee includes Dental professor Sherrill Adams, Nursing professor Linda Aiken, Design professor Eugenie Birch, Wharton professor Eric Bradlow, Medicine Deborah Driscoll, Anthropology and Communication professor John Jackson, Engineering professor Susan Margulies, Law professor Charles Mooney, chemistry professor Christopher Murray, Medicine professor Reed Pyeritz and History professor Barbara Savage. Four students are also involved: College and Wharton senior and Student Committee on Undergraduate Education chairman Zach Fuchs, College and Wharton senior and Undergraduate Assembly chairman Wilson Tong, fourth-year Ph.D. student and Graduate and Professional Student Assembly chairman Andrew Rennekamp and graduate student and GAPSA vice chairwoman for student life Nicole Thorpe.

Following University bylaws, Penn's Faculty Senate and Gutmann chose the committee members.

"They tried to get a variety of perspectives - faculty, students, undergrads, grads," said Tong, who reached out to the UA and UA Steering Committee to encourage students to give input on the search process.

The search is also supported by Barbara Stevens, former vice president and secretary of Penn and Philip Jaeger of the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller.

Gutmann and Robertson added that the committee hopes to have a new provost by the start of the next academic year on July 1. Until then, associate provost for Faculty Affairs Vincent Price will serve as interim provost.

"Penn deserves and expects a provost with an enterprising spirit, a demonstrated commitment to academic excellence and intellectual diversity, and a proven ability to prioritize, plan and implement," Price wrote in an e-mail.

Penn has placed ads in The Economist and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among other publications, seeking an "eminent, energetic, and judicious academic leader with a distinguished record of scholarly and administrative achievement."

As chief academic officer, the provost is responsible for coordinating Penn's academics, research, student life and deans in its 12 schools.

"Provost Daniels was great to undergrads, and I hope the next provost is attuned to undergraduate concerns and has an open door," said Fuchs.

In the last search Penn conducted for a senior-level administrator, Eric Furda was appointed Dean of Admissions in January 2008 to replace former Dean Lee Stetson, who abruptly departed in September 2007. That process took just over three months, compared with the standard six-to-nine month range to appoint a high-level university administrator.

"We're at a very early stage - we have a good committee ... and are getting lots of interest from many different quarters," said Robertson. "We're optimistic that we'll come up with someone wonderful."

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