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(03/10/00 10:00am)
With William Kelley ousted as chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and dean of the Medical School three weeks ago, Penn officials said they hope to soon begin looking for a replacement. "We are thinking through the strategic options for the health care system and the search for a full-time CEO and dean," Provost Robert Barchi said. "Hopefully, that decision will be made at some time in the near future." Chief of Medicine Peter Traber is serving as interim CEO and dean and will remain in that role until a successor is named. Traber has expressed interest in taking the position permanently and Barchi said yesterday he will likely be a candidate. University President Judith Rodin made it clear that there is no formal timetable for the search to start, noting only that she will "move as expeditiously on a search as is appropriate for the Health System." According to Kevin Butler, the managing director of the health care division of Heidrick and Struggles -- an executive search firm with which Penn has worked in the past -- a typical search for a health system CEO takes anywhere from three to six months. "When a search works like clockwork, it is a 90- to 125-day process," he said. "But university searches are a lot more challenging." The process of choosing a candidate to run an academic medical center is like that of most other administrative searches. Each candidate will undergo a background check and a committee will evaluate the hopefuls before making a final recommendation to the president. At Penn, the five most recent major academic searches have taken more than a year each to complete, and all ultimately yielded internal selections. It took more than 15 months before Law School Dean Michael Fitts and Wharton School Dean Patrick Harker were appointed this spring. The search that landed Barchi as provost took more than 13 months and Eduardo Glandt and Samuel Preston were named deans of the Engineering School and the School of Arts and Sciences, respectively, after still-longer searches. And the process that brought Kelley from the University of Michigan in the summer of 1989 took about two years from start to finish. But the narrow pool of candidates eligible to run an academic health system can make recruiting even more challenging, as those considered must have experience managing research and educational programs in addition to overseeing day-to-day patient care. And they also must be willing to leave their current jobs. In Penn's case, the selection process is further compounded by the Health System's current financial problems. A new manager must have the financial skills -- and also the willingness -- to inherit a health system that has lost $300 million over the past three years. But while those people are few and far between, they are certainly out there, said David Shalbot, the managing director of executive search firm Korn/Ferry International's health care practice. "They are turnaround people and they are not exactly nurturing," he said. "They are people who love a challenge and have the skills to take it on." Shabot added that the prestige of running the University's health system -- which is the second-largest in the region -- and highly ranked medical school is another attraction of the job. In the meantime, Traber remains at the helm, flanked by a a leadership team of top University officials and Hunter Group management consultants. The Hunter Group became advisors to the Health System last summer, recommending a number of cost-cutting initiatives, including the elimination of more than 2,800 positions. Penn invited the group back this spring to continue helping with its remediation effort.
(03/08/00 10:00am)
Penn decided last week to retake control of on-campus facilities from the Dallas-based corporation as part of a reqorked contract. Less than a week after the University announced it would once again manage its on-campus facilities, Penn employees said they were optimistic about the change in leadership. As part of a new, six-year contract unveiled last Thursday, Trammell Crow Co. will continue to manage Penn's for-profit real-estate arm, University City Associates, as well as its large scale construction projects. But the University will retake control of the day-to-day operations, housekeeping and maintenance of its on-campus facilities, scaling back its groundbreaking but controversial decision in 1998 to outsource nearly all operations. Trammell Crow has always been particularly unpopular with most workers who became employees of the Dallas-based real estate management firm in April 1998. And now, those maintenance and housekeeping workers say the University's agreement to restructure its outsourcing relationship did not happen soon enough. "I think [Penn management] will definitely be better because [Trammell Crow] was a disaster from the start," said one University worker, who has been a housekeeper for more than 20 years. "The system wasn't perfect before, but it was much better than when Trammell Crow took over." "It's a big change throughout the University," a veteran Penn maintenance worker added. "We're hoping it's going to work and trying to be positive." But Vice President for Facilities Omar Blaik said that the shift in management will not necessarily translate into noticeable -- or even immediate -- change. "Just because we are creating structures doesn't mean things are changing over," Blaik said, pointing out that the University management will retain the same organizational structure procedures and even the same Trammell Crow personnel. "This is a long-term effort." Under the new agreement, the 75 current Trammell Crow managers for on-campus facilities were told that the University would rehire them to do the same jobs, with comparable salaries and benefits. And Blaik said that, so far, more than 20 of those former Trammell Crow middle managers have signed on to come back in the same role as University employees. However, while the management personnel may be the same, University workers say that having Penn take responsibility for its own facilities might improve service. "Penn is going to be taking care of their own problems instead of having someone else take care of them," a veteran University maintenance worker explained. "Now there is going to be a little more of a push to get the job done." Many current workers complained that Trammell Crow tended to drag its feet when responding to service requests, bogging them down with bureaucratic red tape and delaying the start of projects because of a lack of supplies. In an interview last week, Executive Vice President John Fry said the new University management would concentrate on deploying staff more efficiently. He added that Penn might work out an arrangement with the unions to allow more University workers to cross-craft -- allowing a carpenter who also had knowledge of plumbing, for instance, to save time by performing multiple tasks at one site. But most of all, Penn employees said that eliminating Trammell Crow's extra layer of management would get rid of the confusion caused by too many organizations running one university. "It's so tripped up over here, I don't know who is running this place," one campus maintenance worker said.
(03/07/00 10:00am)
After a 15-month search, Professors Michael Fitts became the third internal candidate to be named to a deanship this year. Law Professor Michael Fitts was named the new dean of the Law School yesterday, ending a 15-month search and marking the third time this academic year that the University has selected a candidate from within its own ranks for a top-level position. "Michael Fitts has superb academic judgement and proven leadership and administrative skills," University President Judith Rodin said in a statement. "We are absolutely delighted that he has accepted this new assignment." In February, Rodin appointed Patrick Harker to head the Wharton School, and she named Eduardo Glandt to the Engineering School's top post in November. Fitts succeeds former Law School Dean Colin Diver -- who stepped down in August after a decade of leadership -- and will replace Interim Dean Charles Mooney. In an interview yesterday, Fitts said he expects his new job to be both a challenge and an opportunity, as he prepares to enlarge the faculty and increase the school's endowment. "I like institution building," Fitts said. "I like hiring faculty. I like building programs. I like speaking with alumni." Over the next few years, Fitts said he hopes to hire between seven and eight new professors as well as expand the Law School's interdisciplinary reach, strengthening ties with the University's other professional schools. And, in the process, he said he will be able to improve the school's standing in various academic rankings. Currently the Law School is ranked 12th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. "We have to take [the rankings] very seriously and I take them seriously," Fitts said. "As we expand the faculty and expand the endowment, it can only help us." The announcement is the culmination of an exhaustive search, that ranks among the longest in the University's history. The search that landed Provost Robert Barchi took 13 months, and 16 months were required to select School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston. "The conclusion was terrific," said Wharton Vice Dean Richard Herring, who chaired the Law School dean search committee. "But if we had gotten the decision at six weeks, we would have been all the happier." A West Philadelphia native, Fitts graduated from Harvard University in 1975, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. He later received a law degree in 1979 from the Yale University Law School. While at Yale, he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. Before coming to Penn in 1985, Fitts worked as an attorney advisor for the Office of Legal Council at the U.S Justice Department and served as a law clerk for former University Trustee Leon Higginbotham, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Court. But while Fitts comes with a distinguished legal and academic background, he has never before been a rainmaker. "I have not done a lot of fundraising," Fitts said, unfazed by his inexperience at what has become a priority for most deans these days. "But I have a great product to sell -- an excellent law school with a lot of opportunities." According to Herring, Fitts' genuine enthusiasm gave the committee confidence that he could raise money. But it was his experience as the chairman of the Law School personnel committee at a time "when it did its best hiring in years" that made him stand out from the more than 100 candidates the committee reviewed. Although the nationwide search process dragged on for more than 15 months, Herring said Fitts was identified as a candidate right away. "If you went around the table that first day, [Fitts] was on the list. It was an obvious choice," Herring said. "But Fitts said that he wasn't willing to do it." According to Herring, before Fitts finally agreed to be considered late in the search process, the committee had reviewed a diverse group of candidates -- including practicing lawyers, other law school deans and six internal faculty members. Herring would not reveal the names of any other candidates the committee considered. As they narrowed their selections during the fall, Herring said the committee met more frequently -- conducting almost 80 hours of off-site interviews -- and meetings became more intense. "It was as rambunctious a committee as you will find, but we were all very collegial," Herring said. Herring said the committee submitted its final list of between three and six candidates to Rodin and Barchi in late December. The two then met privately with the individuals on the list before deciding on Fitts in early February. Although he never attended Penn, Fitts' connection to the University runs deep. His father,William Fitts, was the chairman of the Surgery Department in the Medical School. And his grandfather, Joseph Willits, was the dean of the Wharton School.
(03/03/00 10:00am)
Penn outsourced management of its facilities to the Dallas-based firm just two years ago. Nearly two years after Penn entered into a groundbreaking but controversial outsourcing agreement, officials announced yesterday that the University will resume management its on-campus facilities -- abruptly restructuring a deal that had been touted as the first of its kind. As part of a new, six-year contract with Trammell Crow Co., both sides agreed to take away some of the responsibilities that the Dallas-based management firm assumed in a highly contentious 1997 move that drew fire from University faculty and staff. Under the terms of the restructured agreement, Trammell Crow will continue to manage Penn's for-profit real estate arm and focus on the management of large-scale construction projects -- which it had been doing before the 1998 deal. But while the deal includes a contract for Trammell Crow to manage University City Associates for the next 10 years, the firm will no longer be in charge of day-to-day operations, such as housekeeping and maintenance, for on-campus facilities. Penn will resume control over the management of its on-campus facilities and will rehire the 75 current Trammell Crow managers, offering them comparable positions, salaries and benefit packages. In financial terms, the restructured deal will reduce the cost of services that Trammell provides from about $18 million to $11 million, Vice President for Facilities Services and Contract Management Omar Blaik said. And the $26 million lump-sum payment that Penn was promised by Trammell Crow for taking part in its first attempt to outsource a higher-education institution will also be cut in half to about $13 million, according to Executive Vice President John Fry. Fry, who spearheaded the outsourcing deal more than two years ago, insisted that this latest development is not a total repudiation of the initial agreement. "It's a mid-course adjustment on ways we can improve things," said Fry, who earned the enmity of many in the Penn community for going forward with the plan without consulting those who were to be affected. Still, University President Judith Rodin acknowledged that poor performance on the part of Trammell Crow had caused the change. "We need to take responsibilities for maintenance," Rodin said. "Despite the fact that it is not our core strength, it is indeed our core responsibility. And when we don't see it going as well as we would like, of course the only default is to take it back ourselves." Trammell Crow Higher Education Services Executive Vice President Bob Chagres said the new agreement would only help Penn and Trammell Crow work together better. "Generally speaking, long-term contractual relationships go through modifications based on the practical realities of the day to day," he said. For the past two years, Trammell Crow has been providing the University with services under year-long agreements as they worked to get approval from the Internal Revenue Services for a 10-year contract. But with this year's contract set to expire in July, University officials decided to sit down at the bargaining table with Trammell Crow in confidential negotiations to hammer out a new contract that they hope will rectify the problems in housekeeping, maintenance response time and overall efficiency. According to Fry, University management of on-campus facilities will focus on making its employees more responsive to daily concerns. "Our work-orders will take place in 24 hours instead of 72 hours," Fry said. "The impact I am looking for is service." Although Fry said Penn will continue using Trammell Crow's decentralized, organizational structure, the new University management will concentrate on deploying staff more efficiently. "It's one thing to design an organization, and it is another thing to implement it," Fry said. "Direct management of University employees is the best way to go. Trammell Crow was seen as a layer between the University and University-managed, union employees." When the Trammell Crow outsourcing was first announced in the fall of 1997, members of the University community responded in outrage. A special session of University Council was called to discuss the situation, and the body passed a resolution asking the Board of Trustees to reject the deal. And nearly 200 staff members rallied on College Green in an unsuccessful 11th-hour attempt to persuade the Trustees to rethink the proposal. For the past 21 months, many Trammell Crow employees have voiced displeasure with the management, calling it inefficient and dysfunctional, and few students or faculty have seen any improvement in facilities services. Upon hearing yesterday's announcement, many said they believed outsourcing all of Penn's facilities to Trammell Crow was doomed from the start. "Contracting out institutional work is a delicate operation and three years ago, [Penn] was very anxious to start work and didn't have the experience," said City and Regional Planning Professor Anthony Tomazinis, who chaired the Council's facilities committee when Fry first proposed the deal. "I know they didn't do the homework they ought to have done and I am not surprised." Added a former Penn Physical Plant manager, "[Trammell Crow] was a real estate company and they never had experience with facilities. It is evident because they failed."
(03/02/00 10:00am)
Faculty, like Bennett Hall, in need of extensive repairs Penn English professors talk of imagery, symbolism and personification all the time. But the examples they cite are usually found in books -- not their own surroundings. Yet perhaps there is no better metaphor for the Penn English Department than its home, Bennett Hall. Both are in desperate need of repair. A quick stroll through Bennett Hall reveals the wear-and-tear of the building's history. The hallways creek with every step, the white-washed classroom walls are chipped away and the heating system works so well that if the professors don't put students to sleep, the sheer temperature does. Within the classrooms, the situation is much the same. Although Penn's department has long been considered one of the best in the nation, recently English professors have peeled away like the paint on Bennett Hall's walls. Over the past 10 years, the number of professors has dropped from 42 faculty members in the early 1990s to just 36 today. And enrollment continues to put stress on one of the College of Arts and Sciences most popular departments. With over 500 undergraduate English majors, class sizes have increased while the number and variety of courses continue to shrink. "Penn has a strong English department, but we are limping along at the moment," said English professor Wendy Steiner, the former department chairwoman. Realism Certainly, resurrecting Penn's largest humanities department is no simple task. But according to most English professors, the repairs are necessary. "The English Department is to some extent depleted," Interim English Department Chairman John Richetti said. "Some faculty moved out, most have either retired, one or two died and a few didn't get tenure and moved on." Last year's loss of three senior faculty members -- who were all respected as top-notch scholars -- was particularly devastating. American Literature Professor Elisa New left Penn to teach at Harvard University. And in a much-hyped "raid" of Penn's English Department, Duke University recruited African-American Literature scholar Houston Baker and Renaissance literature expert Maureen Quilligan away from the department. The effects have trickled down to the classroom level, where undergraduates have noticed that more English courses are being taught by part-time faculty and there are fewer classes overall from which to choose. "I am considering graduate school in English and would like to take some classes on Spencer and Milton, but they aren't there," said College junior Katie Alex, an English major concentrating in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. College junior David Perelli, who is also an English major, said that he has experienced similar problems. "This year has been kind of crappy in terms of course offerings and many professors aren't there," he complained, noting that Penn's course offerings were more limited than those his friends are taking at peer institutions. In the fall of 1995, the Penn English Department offered 68 courses while this semester it offers 62. The Duke English Department, in contrast, has the same number of faculty, but offers around 80 courses to just 250 undergraduate majors -- about half as many as Penn. According to Richetti, the current shortage of Penn English professors is due to the large number of faculty who are on sabbatical, coupled with the recent losses. "We are still short-handed," he explained. "It's partly because our numbers are low but partly because of the number of faculty who are away doing research." The Reformation The current shortage is a problem that will likely be solved when those faculty return next fall. But the long-term health of the department ultimately requires hiring new faculty. This leaves School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston and Richetti with one big repair job on their hands. The SAS strategic plan -- released last April -- called for increasing the number of faculty in several departments, with English near the top of the list. Other departments singled out as needing more faculty and financial support were Biology, Chemistry, Economics, History, Political Science and Psychology. At a time when most humanities departments get starved of resources, Preston has authorized the English Department to hire four standing faculty members -- including at least one senior professor -- to help fill the void left by faculty departures. And a separate search for a senior Film Studies professor is being conducted by English in conjunction with several other departments. "We are doing very well," Richetti said, noting that the English Department is on track with the plan, having made offers for three assistant professors and one senior faculty member. Richetti also said the department could make offers this year to two additional professors, one junior and one senior. But while it is likely that the junior professors will accept Penn's offer, College Dean Richard Beeman is less confident that the department will fill all of its senior faculty slots by next fall, pointing out that "fewer than half of [senior searches] succeed in a given year." The Restoration While officials struggle to fix the faculty situation, they are also working to repair the department's long-standing home. Both faculty and administrators said the building is not on par with facilities at its Ivy League peers and is barely acceptable for teaching. And like the need to increase faculty, improving the English Department's facilities is also at the top of the SAS strategic plan. "Commitment is manifested in our classrooms and what they do to facilitate learning," Beeman said. "Plainly, Bennett Hall is in need of renovation." Despite persistent rumors about renovations to the building, no tangible steps have been taken. In fact, it was not until late last month that the English Department formed a committee to discuss improving Bennett Hall. "We plan to figure out what we want to do and how to pay for it," said English Professor Rebecca Bushnell, who is chairing the committee. "We really want to do this." But the reality of fixing and financing a building like Bennett Hall most likely means that construction will not take place for quite a while. According to Vice President for Facilities Services Omar Blaik, before the project can even enter the design stage, the University must first hire an architect to do a feasibility study and then get the approval of the Capital Council and the Board of Trustees. In addition, the department must find "swing space" that will house its offices and classes while Bennett Hall is being renovated -- hardly an easy task with the amount of construction taking place around campus. And the University also needs to secure donors to provide the financial backing for such a project. Although officials say there are a few prospective candidates in the pipeline, they acknowledge that most contributions flow in when actual plans are in place. "We have identified likely candidates and are having some preliminary discussions," SAS External Affairs Vice Dean Jean-Marie Kneeley said. The Renaissance Despite current challenges, SAS administrators are quick to point out that the English Department is not in complete disarray and most remain optimistic about its future. English remains SAS's largest department in the humanities and, with a top-10 national ranking, it is one of Penn's most respected disciplines. "This is a flourishing department that is improving itself more and more," Graduate Department Chairman Christopher Looby said. And students are quick to point out that most of the department faculty -- both standing and part-time professors -- are gifted and accessible teachers. "You get to work with some of the nation's top scholars as a freshman," Perelli said. But according to Bushnell, the department must acknowledge its current weaknesses and work with its strengths. "This is a department with a strong national reputation but also strong internal relationships," she said. "We want to build this department. It's the key part of our strategic plan."
(03/02/00 10:00am)
While the ongoing game of academic musical chairs has left the English Department standing up alone for the past year, four recent job offers should put Penn in a better position for the future. According to Interim Department Chairman John Richetti, 19th century American Literature scholar Jonathan Arac from the University of Pittsburgh was offered a position as a senior professor. And three other offers for assistant professorships were made to newly minted Ph.Ds, bringing in younger talent to replace the senior faculty who have left the English Department in recent years. "This is an expansionist moment for the English Department," Richetti said. "We are approaching full strength." In the past 10 years, the department has lost seven standing faculty members -- including three last year -- dropping from 42 standing professors to just 36 today. But since the School of Arts and Sciences' strategic plan called to increase the number of faculty in six key departments last April, the English Department has been actively working to recruit new professors. Although SAS Dean Samuel Preston authorized the department to make just four offers, Richetti said that it is currently looking for a fourth junior professor and there is an outside chance of bringing in another senior African-American Literature professor to Penn. The department is also interviewing candidates for a senior Film Studies professor as part of a joint search being conducted with the Fine Arts, German and Romance Languages departments. That position could be housed in the English Department. According to Richetti, this year's offers were made to help the English Department rebuild traditionally strong areas that were particularly hard-hit by faculty losses as well as to strengthen its national reputation. Should Arac -- who is currently on leave from the University of Pittsburgh to write a book on Mark Twain's classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- come to Penn this fall, he will replace Elisa New, an American Literature specialist who left Penn for Harvard University last year. Stanford doctoral candidate Sean Keilen -- an expert in English Renaissance literature -- was offered an assistant professorship at Penn next fall, which should soften the loss of scholar Maureen Quilligan, now the chairwoman of the Duke University English Department. Arac and Keilen will likely be joined by Marsha Fausti, a 19th century African-American scholar who is completing her doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University. As an assistant professor, she would help fill the void left by Houston Baker, another top senior professor who left for Duke last year. And with an assistant professor offer out to Joseph Clark -- a post-colonial, African and Carribean Literature specialist -- the department is bolstering its commitment to the emerging field of global English Literature. By replacing a number of senior faculty with junior professors, the offers are in line with the SAS strategic plan's recommendation to reduce Penn's high percentage of tenured faculty from 81 percent to 72 percent. "Younger people bring energy and a new perspective," Preston noted. "And to start with, their salaries are less." It is also easier to recruit younger professors than older, more settled academics. Fresh out of graduate school, recent Ph.Ds actively hunt for jobs -- especially those that provide good tenure opportunities -- and are more flexible about where they locate. "We often get our first-choice candidates because we are a friendly environment and because there is a good chance of getting tenure," Steiner said, explaining Penn's success in attracting assistant professors. The tenure requirements at Stanford and Harvard are so stringent that almost no junior faculty have been awarded the promotion, several Penn professors said. But the more difficult challenge lies ahead, as Richetti and other Penn faculty and administrators work to lure Arac, and perhaps other senior professors, away from various colleges and universities. Hiring senior professors is a much longer and more complicated process than getting their junior counterparts to sign on the dotted line. In fact, College Dean Richard Beeman said less than one out of three senior searches are successful in any given year. Penn's review process is extremely complex and time consuming for the candidate. And from the University's perspective, it is just plain difficult to attract top scholars away from comfortable positions at peer institutions. "Its hard to recruit full professors," Richetti said. "They have families and other personal obligations." Since universities often match salaries when their faculty are being lured away, other factors -- such as inter-department relations, jobs for spouses and partners, endowed professorships and the quality of facilities -- become influential. Penn has difficulty hanging on to senior faculty when other schools offer them money and resources that the University cannot match. Quilligan, for instance, now chairs Duke's English Department, and Baker said that a Duke faculty post for his wife contributed to his leaving Penn. Penn's smaller budget for SAS limits Preston's ability to award endowed professorships. In the past, only one member of the entire SAS faculty has received an endowed chair -- although Trustee Christopher Browne's recent donation will now permit the dean to name two more each year. And only recently did the University allocate funding to sponsor research by new hires. While a well-stacked library -- which Penn does have -- is at the top of any prospective English professor's list, facilities such as a faculty lounge and office space -- which Penn's English Department lacks in its current home of Bennett Hall -- are considered important extras. Beyond these tangible needs, most Penn professors say they like working in a friendly environment. "Some places are snake pits," Richetti said. "I'm not saying we don't have our eccentrics, but we are one big, happy family."
(02/28/00 10:00am)
University officials have said the announcement of the new dean of the Law School is 'imminent' after a 15-month search. The end of the exhaustive 15-month search for the next dean of the Law School may be in sight. In fact, an announcement is "imminent," top University officials have said during the past week. But while it seems likely that an announcement will come as soon as this week, "imminent," as Penn administrators have used it, can mean anywhere from two days to two months. Law School Dean Search Committee Chairman Richard Herring, who is also the vice dean of the Wharton School, said last Tuesday that he expected to hear an announcement by the end of the week. But with President Clinton visiting campus and repercussions from the ouster of William Kelley as Health System chief and Medical School dean still being felt, the week came and went without an announcement. And in an interview last week, University President Judith Rodin said she did not know when a decision would be made public. Since January, University officials have said the process was coming to an end and an announcement would be forthcoming. "I expect to hear a decision from the president and provost in the next few weeks," Herring said in January, after his committee had submitted its final list of candidates to Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi at the end of the fall semester. And when Patrick Harker was named the dean of Wharton in early February -- drawing that 14-month search to a close -- other Penn officials said they believed that the Law School dean would be announced by the University Trustees meetings on February 17. But that was before Kelley's dismissal, and some administrators have said that after more than a year of searching, the University would hardly want the announcement to be overshadowed by other campus events. As the process has dragged on since November 1998, members of the search committee have remained extremely tight-lipped, revealing few details and refusing to confirm any names. In recent months, Law professors Heidi Hurd and Michael Fitts have surfaced as potential candidates. Rodin, Herring and all search committee members have refused to confirm whether or not either was on the list of finalists or was even a candidate. They have also refused to discuss whether candidates on the final list were external or internal, saying only that the committee considered both. The Law School is currently headed by Interim Dean Charles Mooney, who has been serving in that capacity since Colin Diver stepped down from the position last summer. Diver announced his resignation in October 1998 after 10 years as leader of the school.
(02/24/00 10:00am)
Under a new program, the administration will hear student views. It won't take bongo drums and protests to get University President Judith Rodin to listen to Penn students' views. As part of her latest project -- PennTalks -- interested undergraduates will have the opportunity to share their visions for Penn's future in student-led discussion groups around campus this spring. Findings from the sessions will be presented to Rodin and other University leaders to provide them with a better understanding of student opinions. "This is a way to get into the grassroots and have really everyone involved in the thinking and planning of the University," Rodin said. "There are a lot of items on the table ranging from what kind of future Penn should have with regard to academic programs, the nature of college houses and what kind of community we want to be." According to PennTalks Associate Director Bill Boltz, the discussion groups will be held in March and early April and will be open to undergraduates from across the University. "This is a chance to have students heard in a variety of forums," he said, noting that sessions will take place in college houses, fraternities and sororities, campus organizations and other places that Penn students meet. Student facilitators will lead the groups and subsequently meet to talk about their findings and eventually prepare a report for Rodin. These leaders will receive discussion training from the Connecticut-based Study Circles Resource Center, an institution that offers advice on how to lead productive discussions. All interested students may attend the training, according to Boltz. Although there is no set agenda for discussion, students will be asked to share personal memories of their Penn experience and identify the University's strengths and weaknesses to provide the background for strategic planning. For Penn Public Talk student liaison Ari Alexander, just the chance to participate in a group is exciting. "Students are looking for opportunities to feel empowered," the College junior said. "For the president of the University, who is seen as distant and corporate, to listen [to students] is a very powerful thing." "This isn't talk for the sake of talk," Penn Public Talk Executive Director Stephen Steinberg said. "On the one hand, we want this to be as open and interesting to students and facilitators, but at the same time distill from it hopes, visions about what this community wants to be." If successful, Steinberg said that they plan to expand PennTalks in the fall to include graduate students, faculty and staff. "And if the model works, we hope to share it with other universities," Steinberg added. PennTalks is the first program to be rolled out by the Penn Public Talk Project, and is being co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Assembly and Civic House. The idea for the program came as an outgrowth of the Penn National Commission on Society, Culture and Community -- a University-sponsored think-tank chaired by Rodin that studies how people interact in the public sphere and addresses ways to improve discourse. "It has always been our intent to bring the work of the Penn National Commission home," Rodin said. "This is just another model for interaction."
(02/21/00 10:00am)
Provost Robert Barchi has played many roles as the University's chief academic officer, but real estate agent has not been one of them -- until now. Barchi will lead the 12 students, faculty members and administrators who serve on the Locust Walk Advisory Committee, which is charged with finding new houses for about a dozen campus organizations. According to Barchi, the LWAC -- which began meeting last week -- will be considering how to best fill a number of recently vacated properties along Locust Walk and throughout campus. "With the number of spaces that have become available along Locust Walk," Barchi said in a statement, "we have a terrific opportunity to help shape the future of the Walk in a strategic and comprehensive way." The committee hopes to make formal recommendations to University President Judith Rodin on the groups and programs that could be assigned space in the available buildings by the middle of March. LWAC members said University administrators began the process a few months ago when it started performing space studies on a number of University-controlled buildings. Now, the administration is getting the input of various student and faculty constituencies to try to find the best fit for about 12 different student, cultural and performing arts groups. "We talked about the spaces that were available and then tried to start matching up groups," said Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Michael Silver, who is a member of the committee. "There is going to be a lot of mixing and matching," the College senior added. "A building like the Christian Association can serve a variety of purposes." Decisions will not displace current residents, and committee members said they are committed to maintaining the diversity of student life on Locust Walk -- including fraternity houses. "We're positive about the role Greek life plays and it's important to have Locust Walk affirm that," said Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairwoman Kendra Nicholson, who sits on the committee. "If you are trying to make Locust Walk representative, Greeks are a huge chunk." The committee is looking to find new residents for the Christian Association building, which the University purchased last fall. It is also considering how to best fill space in the Veranda -- the student center that formed when the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity vacated the house in the spring of 1998 -- and the Carriage House, which currently houses a number of student organizations. University administrators have already said they intend to fill the former Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house with three academic-based programs -- the Humanities Forum, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and a Folklore Center -- although the committee will officially approve these recommendations. And the LWAC will also try to find new homes for about 10 other organizations as well. Over the past few months, a number of groups -- including GAPSA, the Asian American Association and La Casa Latina -- submitted proposals to the University administration requesting space.
(02/21/00 10:00am)
Eduardo Glandt, Patrick Harker and Peter Traber were officially welcomed. University President Judith Rodin was scheduled to introduce Penn's two newest academic leaders to the Board of Trustees -- with resolutions to officially approve the appointments of Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt and Wharton Dean Patrick Harker -- on the stated agenda of last Friday's meeting. But she wound up adding a third name to her welcome list. "It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dr. Peter Traber, who will now be serving as interim CEO of the Health System and Dean of the Medical School," Rodin said. In a move that overshadowed much of the Trustee's public discussion of the University's technology strategy at last week's meetings, Rodin and Trustees Chairman James Riepe asked William Kelley to step down as head of the financially troubled University of Pennsylvania Health System on Wednesday night. The Trustees still managed to get down to business as they passed 26 resolutions, held eight standing committee meetings and attended a number of seminars where Penn administrators, faculty and students discussed the impact of high-technology on higher education. However, the primary concerns of most Trustees were financially oriented, as they heard reports on the disappointing performance of Penn's endowment and UPHS's fiscal woes. According to Trustee Investment Committee Chairman Richard Worley, the endowment declined 0.8 percent over the past six months to $3.19 billion. "There was a growth explosion in the second half of last year and we were bystanders to that," Worley said. Despite the University's poor market performance, the Alumni Development Committee reported that contributions to the endowment currently sit at $62.7 million, ahead of last year's record-setting pace. At Friday morning's Budget and Finance meeting, the committee focused on ways by which Penn could more effectively collect third-party insurance payments, which UPHS administrators have long cited as a cause of their financial crisis. UPHS has lost almost $300 million in the past two years and plans to eliminate 20 percent of the system's workforce have already begun to be implemented. "We are talking about a health system that is bleeding and I don't know how to put the stitches in," Budget Committee Chairman Lawrence Weinbach said. The Trustees approved a series of Budget and Finance resolutions including a $9 million increase in the budgeted construction expenditure for Huntsman Hall, which brings the pricetag of the business education complex to almost $140 million. They voted in favor of an $8 million renovation of the Graduate School of Education Building, the $15 million construction of the University Museum Mainwaring Collections Storage Wing and agreed to sell a UPHS clinic for $325,000. The Trustees also accepted an $8.5 million interest-free loan from the Pew Memorial Trust to support genomic programs, the Fountaine Minority Fellowship Program and community outreach initiatives. In addition to hearing reports from the Audit and Compliance, Student Life and Academic Policy committees, the Trustees listened to Provost Robert Barchi give updates on plans for New Student Orientation, Locust Walk development and the on-going investigation into the University's involvement with gene therapy research. The Trustees also voted on Friday to officially name Craig Carnaroli as vice president for finance and treasurer, Glandt as dean of the Engineering School and Harker as dean of the Wharton School.
(02/18/00 10:00am)
The University Trustees got a taste of college life in the 21st century yesterday as they talked with Penn administrators, faculty and students about the impact technology is having on campus. The Trustees, who hold three full group sessions each year, will continue their discussion about Penn's strategic use of technology when they reconvene today at the Inn at Penn for the second and final day of committee meetings. "We have made a lot of progress and are doing a lot of innovative things," said Trustees Chairman James Riepe, who has made technology a focus of his term. "This will position us to have even grander plans as to how to apply technology to move forward." While no major resolutions were passed, yesterday's meetings served as learning sessions for the Trustees, as officials from nearly every division of the University lectured about how technology makes things faster, better and easier -- their Powerpoint presentations serving as handy examples. At the Academic Policy meeting, Wharton School administrators showed the Trustees how its "e-talk" message boards and Web CafZ chatrooms allow prospective and current business school students to connect outside Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. The committee also learned how technology -- such as a World Wide Web site on Shakespeare and special mathematics software -- enhanced classroom learning. University Trustee Marjorie Rendell, a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and wife of former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, said she was impressed with how technology was increasing student-teacher interaction. "You think of it as a distant process, but it actually causes students and teachers to get closer together," she said. Four Trustee committees met yesterday to discuss a range of issues pertaining to the University. Taking a break from the technology theme, Provost Robert Barchi briefed the Facilities Committee on preliminary plans for a new Life Sciences building that will house the Psychology and Biology departments, and possibly a Genomics program as well. "You cannot be a player in a [top] research university without one," Barchi said, noting that nearly every one of Penn's peer institutions is improving its facilities and expanding programs in cognitive neuroscience and genomics. The committee was also updated on the numerous construction projects taking place on campus -- from Huntsman Hall to Perelman Quadrangle -- as well as a nearly $22 million proposal to install new sprinkling and public address systems in all of the University's college houses. The committee also discussed the University's plans to spend $15 million to purchase and renovate a number of West Philadelphia rental properties that do not currently health and safety standards. In the Student Life Committee, the Trustees saw how Penn performing arts groups use virtual reality software to create lighting plans for campus productions. They also got a chance to sign up for Penn classes, as University officials unveiled the recently updated Penn InTouch 2000 online registration system.
(02/17/00 10:00am)
The Trustees meet three times each year, in the spring, summer and fall, to discuss and vote on campus issues. When James Riepe was elected chairman of the University Trustees last summer, he said Penn's strategic use of technology would be the focus of his tenure. That issue will be at the center of the Trustees' agenda at their annual spring meeting, which will be held today and tomorrow at the Inn at Penn. The Trustees will also be meeting with top University administrators to talk about a series of new campus development projects, the status of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the impact of the federal government's investigation into the Institute for Human Gene Therapy research. The Trustees hold three full meetings each year -- in the fall, spring and summer seasons -- to discuss and vote on important issues pertaining to the University community. And in an increasingly electronic academic world, it is not surprising that technology is at the forefront of issues. "Penn has gotten a lot of accolades of being a really wired campus," University President Judith Rodin said. "We are going to be spending a day showing the Trustees what we have done." The Student Life and Academic Policy committees will be learning about Penn's current use of technology -- as well as possible uses for it in the future -- during public sessions today. University Trustee David Pottruck, the chief executive officer of Charles Schwab, will talk about the strategic use of technology in the business world. And Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing James O'Donnell, who heads a Penn committee exploring distance learning, will return the focus to academia when he discusses the University's current involvement with distance learning initiatives. O'Donnell will also inform the Trustees about other cost-effective programs his committee is considering that will combine classroom bricks with computer mouse clicks. Penn is currently linked to a series of high-tech, higher education programs. The College of General Studies sponsors PennAdvance, a for-credit distance learning program that enables students from 15 cities to take Penn introductory-level courses using live satellite broadcasts, video-conferencing technology and the Internet. And the Wharton School, the Medical School and the Nursing School currently offer professionally focused distance learning ventures as well. Other highlights of the meetings include an update by Provost Robert Barchi on the University's potential plans for an academic facility devoted to the life sciences and a closed-door meeting to determine the public relations strategy for the IHGT case. The three-week-old ban on all gene therapy studies at Penn was prompted by possible research protocol violations in a study that resulted in the death of an 18-year old subject last September. The case has thrust unwanted publicity onto Penn, making it the poster child in the national media for the missteps in the controversial field of gene therapy. The Trustees must also formally approve the appointment of Patrick Harker as the new Wharton dean. Harker has served as deputy dean since last spring and was appointed interim dean over the summer. His appointment ends a 14-month national search to replace Thomas Gerrity.
(02/16/00 10:00am)
Hundreds of Penn fans made the trek to Princeton to cheer Penn on to a 55-46 victory. PRINCETON, N.J. -- Once Ugonna Onyekwe punctuated Penn's 55-46 victory at Jadwin Gym last night with a 360-degree dunk, Frinceton realized what Quakers fans knew all along -- the Tigers were pucked. Penn took the lead, 13-12, on guard Michael Jordan's one-footer with 9:04 remaining in the first half, and never looked back en route to the triumph over the archrival Tigers. The Quakers' defense was largely responsible for the victory, holding Princeton standout Mason Rocca and highly touted freshman Spencer Gloger scoreless through the first half of the game and shutting down the Princeton offense all night long. Last night's win gives Penn a two-game lead in the Ivy League standings. Princeton's hopes of taking the Ivy title away from defending champion Penn now rest on beating the Quakers in the teams' season finale meeting at the Palestra and hoping that Penn is upset by one of the league's six also-rans. But Quakers co-captain Michael Jordan said the race is far from over. "We're not satisfied," said Jordan, a College senior. "When we win the next seven, I'll be satisfied. We haven't done anything yet." The hundreds of Penn fans who made the trek to Princeton, however, certainly understood the significance of last night's game. Despite being mostly tucked away in the far northwest corner of Jadwin's upper balcony, the Quakers faithful cheered loudly throughout the game and stormed the court as the final buzzer sounded. Sporting "Red and Blue Crew" T-shirts and face paint, Penn fans belted out a chorus of "Airball!" chants and made sure to remind the Tigers which team beat Yale last week. "[The seats] suck. But sitting here with everyone else is amazing," Engineering senior Rob Jenkins said. "There's a lot of love and a lot of hate," said Jenkins, pointing first to the Penn student section and then to the Princeton students. With a healthy dose of Ivy League wit, the Penn fans also held up signs offering spelling tips -- "You Can't Spell Princeton Without NIT" -- and career advice, suggesting to Mason Rocca that "bricklaying" was his calling. And when the Princeton band tried to rally the crowd late in the game with a rendition of the "Hey Song," Penn fans inserted their own lyrics of "You Suck!" to take any last hope the Tigers may have had in reserve. At the end of the game, Penn fans swarmed the court, only to be met by a deluge of debris from some angry Princeton supporters. While at first the Tigers faithful threw mini-basketballs, the barrage soon escalated to include plastic water and soda containers for the second year in a row, drawing the ire of Jordan. "I didn't appreciate it at all. A couple of plastic bottles went past my head," Jordan said. "Call me whatever names you want, but after the game is over, it's just ridiculous to be throwing things onto the court." Despite the presence of extra security guards, two separate scuffles broke out between Penn and Princeton fans -- one before the game and one after. "We were walking around the stadium carrying our sign that said 'Can't Spell Princeton Without NIT,'" Engineering sophomore Bob Barsotti said. "And some angry Princeton person came down and attacked us -- actually followed us into the stands." Another confrontation was reported to have occurred outside Jadwin after the game let out, but it was quickly broken up. Still, supporters of both teams acknowledged that last night's contest failed to equal the legendary battles of the recent past. Princeton cheerleader Kacey Guy recalled the excitement of what Princeton fans like to call the "Miracle at the Palestra" -- or what Penn fans remember as the "Heartbreak at the Palestra" -- when the Tigers rebounded last February from a staggering 29-3 deficit. "Last year was great at the Palestra," she said. But Penn fans have a different conception of which of last year's contests was most impressive. "I was here last year at one of the best games of all time," Democratic National Committee chairman and longtime Penn basketball fan Ed Rendell said, recalling the Quakers' Ivy-clinching victory last March at Jadwin.
(02/15/00 10:00am)
While the FLA and WRC share the same goal of stopping sweatshop labor, their approaches differ considerably. Although University President Judith Rodin agreed last night to pull out of the Fair Labor Association, the key issue of debate between the administration and the Penn Students Against Sweatshops protesters remains unresolved. Will Penn re-enter the FLA -- a non-profit, labor rights organization made up of corporations, human rights groups and 131 colleges and universities? Or will it join the Worker Rights Consortium -- a student-led group of international labor rights organizations as well as five colleges and universities that the protesters have advocated? Or perhaps it will just join both -- a decision that Ivy League peer Brown University made last October. Although both the FLA and WRC share the same goal of improving working conditions in Third World countries, they differ in both their overall philosophy and approach. "The WRC is an organization that is morally sound. We have good principles and good morals," WRC coordinator Maria Roeper said. "Some people think the FLA is made up of companies that are primarily concerned with saving face -- not improving conditions," she added. Currently affiliated with the growing WRC are Brown, Haverford College, Bard College, Loyola University and Oberlin College, which joined yesterday. Meanwhile, FLA Executive Director Sam Brown said that his group is the most effective way to create change by establishing a code of standards and checks for all companies. "We have developed these standards in a very careful way so we know they can be enforced," Brown said. Both the FLA and the WRC have similar sets of working conditions, with different enforcement policies and levels of public exposure. The FLA has established a Workplace Code of Conduct that provides a minimum standard for labor conditions, to which all members, their licensees and contractors must comply. The code prohibits child and forced labor as well as discrimination in any form, including discrimination against women, and calls for the establishment of a third-party complaint system for workers. It also limits the number of work hours in a week and provides guidelines for both a minimum wage and overtime compensation. The FLA plans to address the issue of a "living wage" after further studies are completed. The WRC, on the other hand, does not require specific codes of conduct, but recommends that all WRC schools adopt their own code based on its model. Its plan calls for full public exposure of workers' rights abuses, protection of women's rights and calls for the establishment of a "living wage" after further study. Roeper also said the model plan calls for a third-party complaint system and will offer educational programs to encourage workers to speak up about conditions. Enforcement of those policies remains the greatest area of dissent -- although neither organization has actually begun to monitor labor practices. The FLA plans to use external and internal monitors, starting in the fall. Brown said that internal monitors -- who will work with factory management -- will be better able to ensure decent conditions and fair wages. "We know there are bad guys, but we don't have to catch them one at a time," he said. "What we have to do is fix the problem in a systematic way." But Roeper said that the FLA's use of internal monitors is exactly what make its enforcement ineffective. "They allow the companies to pick which factories get monitored, and they allow the companies to say when they get monitored," Roeper said. According to Roeper, the WRC calls for external, independent evaluation and will publicly expose all companies it finds violating workers' rights. The FLA requires its internal and external monitors to provide their reports to the FLA, which will prepare a public report.
(02/09/00 10:00am)
Patrick Harker plans to focus his tenure on improving Wharton's use of technology. Technology may be transforming the business world, but it's Patrick Harker who hopes to transform business education. As the 12th dean of the Wharton School, Harker is prepared to lead the business school into the 21st century by using technology to create what he calls a "community of learning." "People will say it's about changing the curriculum, but I think the game is bigger than that," Harker said. "It's not about changing the curriculum. It's about changing learning." Harker said he plans to begin his tenure as the business school's permanent head by engaging faculty in discussions on how technology can be used to enhance Wharton's educational programs. It is a dialogue that Harker should be familiar with by now. As interim and deputy dean, he oversaw the development of the MBA program's E-Commerce major as well as the expansion of Wharton's distance learning initiatives. And Harker has also been frequently linked to many of the business school's other technology-oriented projects. "Pat has been one of the major advocates for Wharton in particular in thinking about how it will own the technology space and own the global environment," University President Judith Rodin said. "He's very technology savvy," former Wharton Dean Thomas Gerrity added. "And given that technology is front and center in every business school, that is a real strength." Although he is yet to come up with specific plans for his deanship, Harker said he wants to rethink the ways that Wharton students learn. "If we are going to provide students with the life skills they need, we're going to have to teach them how to work in virtual teams with people they have never seen before," he said. He also noted the importance of establishing interdisciplinary programs that will enable Wharton students to work with other Penn faculty and students, and with other business schools around the world. But Harker said he knows his agenda will be an expensive undertaking. "What we are talking about is not cheap, but I don't think we have a choice," he said. "The game we are playing right now is a high-stakes game. It's the future of education." Harker has demonstrated the ability to raise money, one of the most important demands of a dean's job. "Even though he has held two jobs as interim and deputy dean, he's raised over $31 million for the capital campaign," said Gerrity, who spearheaded Wharton's current capital campaign during his tenure as dean. "He's gotten off to a much faster start than I did." And Rodin noted that his fundraising prowess was key to him getting the job. "Seeing people who were meeting with him and getting to know him, [I could see] how effective he was being perceived as a fundraiser," she said. "He is such a likeable person and a true visionary." Harker also said he was not afraid of taking charge of a school that is already considered one of the best in the world --Ea concern that some speculated was common in dean candidates and one of the reasons the search dragged on for so long. "It's a three- or four-horse race," he said, referring to other top business schools such as Northwestern, Stanford and Harvard universities. "We've got to break out of that pack right now. I wouldn't have taken the job if I didn't think I could." An alumnus of Penn's undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in Engineering, Harker has had a distinguished career as a scholar of the service sector and holds several copyrights and patents. In 1991, he was one of 16 men and women named as a White House Fellow by former President George Bush, serving as a special technology consultant to the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Before serving in Wharton's administration, Harker was the chairman of the Operations and Information Systems Department and was also once head of the Systems Department in the Engineering School. Harker is a resident of Haddon Heights, N.J., where he lives with his wife -- a Wharton alumna who he met as a sophomore at a Penn fraternity party -- and three children.
(02/09/00 10:00am)
More than 200 candidates were considered. Newly appointed Wharton Dean Patrick Harker didn't plan to be a candidate to head the University's prestigious business school. He said he "dreaded" taking the job even on an interim basis last summer, and certainly didn't want the job permanently. But successful stints as the business school's deputy and interim dean convinced Wharton faculty, search committee members -- and finally Harker himself -- to consider him for the position. So yesterday, after an exhaustive international search, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi announced that their choice was one shared by many business school faculty members: Harker, 41, would become the 12th dean of the Wharton School after a 14-month search in which more than 200 candidates were reviewed. "This was a full and far reaching process," Rodin said. "This is a search that truly went to the far ends of the earth. When Rodin charged Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack to head the 12-person search committee in November 1998, the task was to find a strong leader who had an understanding of academia as well as an eye to the business world. That broad category allowed for a broad range of candidates: Wharton faculty, deans of other business schools, senior government officials and top corporate executives. "We were looking at highly qualified people," Hack said. "You couldn't look at just 100 names." More than 200 credentials were reviewed by committee members based on numerous letters and suggestions from Wharton faculty, students and alumni. The committee also relied on two executive search firms -- Spencer Stuart, and later Hendrix and Struggles -- when it decided to review even more prospects. But in the end, Rodin decided upon Harker, a University graduate who has served in multiple leadership positions at Penn, culminating with his appointment last spring as Wharton's deputy dean and then in the summer as interim dean. She said it was Harker's service as Wharton's temporary leader that persuaded her to offer him the job. "It's not often that we get the chance to see someone in a dress rehearsal," Rodin said. "But the faculty got the chance watching Pat over the summer in the interim dean role." Until three months ago, Harker was ineligible for the job since he sat on the search committee seeking to fill the position. But he stepped down from the dean search committee in November, at the prompting, he said, of colleagues on the committee and in Wharton. And shortly after that, his name appeared on a short list of about six finalists presented to Rodin. Though he said as recently as the fall that he was absolutely uninterested in taking on the job permanently, Harker said yesterday that the support he received from the faculty persuaded him to change his mind. Harker is the fourth straight Penn faculty member Rodin has named to a top University post, following the appointments of Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt, Barchi and School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston. But his appointment marks the first time in 18 years that the Wharton deanship will go to one of the business school's faculty members. "We have so much capacity now on our faculty that our inside candidates are competitively edging out outstanding external prospects for these positions," Rodin said. Statistics and Marketing Professor Abba Krieger, a search committee member, said the selection of an internal candidate should reduce the learning curve. "An internal candidate can hit the ground running faster," he said. "Anyone we would have chosen would have had managerial experience but would still need to learn who are the players." According to Rodin, the search took so long -- among the longest in Penn's history -- because of the large numbers of candidates that committee members interviewed. "We had 80 or 90 candidates that we contacted -- most who were interested," she said. The committee was also set back because a number of highly qualified candidates dropped out of the race, Hack said. And while the committee set several deadlines for itself -- first that it would have a dean in place by the time Gerrity stepped down last July, and then that they would have one by the end of the fall semester -- Hack said such projections were more a hope than a reality. The appointment means that the only major administrative vacancy is the Law School deanship, which has remained unfilled since Colin Diver resigned last summer. That search has been going on since November 1998, shortly after Diver announced that he would resign. Officials expect an announcement to come on that position soon, perhaps by next week's University Trustees meeting.
(02/08/00 10:00am)
Interim Dean Patrick Harker is expected to be tapped today for the position. University President Judith Rodin plans to announce Wharton's new dean today, and speculation is swirling throughout the business school that Interim Dean Patrick Harker is the choice. Harker, 41, has been Wharton's temporary head since longtime Dean Thomas Gerrity stepped down in July. Harker has also served as Wharton's deputy dean since last April. According to several top Wharton and University officials, Rodin is expected to report her decision to the entire business school faculty at a noon meeting today. Several faculty members said last night they were anticipating that Harker will be the new head of the elite business school. "There is considerable speculation that Harker will be made dean," one Wharton professor said. Other Wharton faculty and administrators said Harker's name has been floating around department hallways in recent weeks. And a top administration official confirmed last night that Harker had "been a leading candidate." When reached at home last night, Harker declined to comment on the possibility of being named as dean. Jennifer Baldino, Rodin's director of external affairs, referred all questions to University spokesman Ken Wildes, who refused to comment on the pending announcement. Graduate School of Fine Arts Dean Gary Hack, who chaired the Wharton dean search committee, also declined comment about all matters surrounding the decision. The search for a new Wharton dean has dragged on for almost 14 months, with members of the 12-person committee remaining extremely tight-lipped throughout the process. Harker, who was previously a member of the search committee, resigned from the group during the search process. That move made him eligible for the position, as most academic searches do not allow members of the search committee to be considered as candidates. Harker has been a noted scholar and academic leader since he joined the Penn faculty more than 15 years ago. As Wharton interim and deputy dean, Harker has been actively involved in Wharton's fundraising campaigns and academic policy decisions, as well as in shaping its strategic direction with new technology-oriented programs like the E-Commerce major and distance learning initiatives. Harker previously served as chairman of the Operations and Management Department and was once head of the Systems Department of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Harker has a distinguished background in technological innovation and was named a White House Fellow by President George Bush in 1991 for his outstanding contributions as a scholar of the service sector. He also has strong ties to the University. An alumnus of Penn's undergraduate, graduate and doctoral Engineering programs, Harker has been a Penn faculty member since 1984. He previously taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Since Gerrity announced his resignation in October 1998, the Wharton dean search has progressed far slower than committee members originally anticipated. Hack said last spring that the committee hoped to submit a final list of candidates to Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi last May so that the school would have a permanent leader in place when Gerrity officially stepped down on July 1. But the timetable changed as the search continued. It was not until last October that Hack finally turned in the committee's recommendations. And by late January, Hack said he was still unaware if Rodin and Barchi had made their decision. Throughout the process, Hack maintained that the committee was conducting an exhaustive search of the nation's top business and academic leaders, although few names ever surfaced. Last September, Harker said he was not being considered as a possible candidate and claimed he was ineligible as a member of the search committee. Hack also noted early last fall that the committee had lost a number of otherwise qualified candidates who were unwilling to leave their jobs to come to Penn. If Harker is named today as expected, it would mark the fourth straight academic leadership position to go to an internal candidate, following Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt, Barchi and School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston. Although today's announcement will give the Wharton School permanent leadership, the Law School remains without a dean after a similar 14-month search. Officials have said they anticipate that the post will likely be filled before the University Trustees meetings next week, but according to one Penn official familiar with the situation, there is no set date for a Law dean announcement. A short list of candidates for the Law School deanship was submitted to Rodin and Barchi during the fall semester.
(02/03/00 10:00am)
The Architecture major could replace Design of the Environment. Blueprints have been finalized for a new undergraduate Architecture major and minor to be offered this fall in the College of Arts and Sciences, according to Architecture Department Chairman Richard Wesley. Plans for the program -- to be housed in the Graduate School of Fine Arts -- call for a coherent set of courses that allow interested students to gain basic knowledge of architectural principles and prepare for a professional career. The proposal is expected to be voted on by the Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Curriculum Committee and the School of Arts and Sciences faculty by the end of the spring semester, College Dean Richard Beeman said. The proposal states that if the new major and minor are approved, the Design of the Environment interdisciplinary program -- which is currently Penn's closest offering to a pre-architecture track -- will effectively be discontinued. "The proposal isn't meant to only allow some students to focus in architecture," Wesley said. "It is meant for architecture to have a presence in the education of undergraduates." According to Wesley, an eight-credit minor in Architecture will introduce undergraduates to the field and will allow interested students to satisfy the requirements for admission to an Architecture graduate program. But he said the intensive 38-credit, studio-based major in Architecture will prepare students for advanced standing in a graduate, professional degree program. The proposal predicts that about 60 students will choose to minor in Architecture and another 70 will major in the subject. The major program will be largely composed of existing GSFA courses, according to the proposal. Potential majors would concentrate in satisfying the General Requirement their freshman years before taking two required introductory Architecture courses for admission to the program. Majors would then take 10 core courses in Art History, Design and Construction during their sophomore and junior years. The courses are required for admission to a professional degree program in Architecture. As seniors, they would enroll in first-year courses of GSFA's Master's of Architecture program -- enabling them to potentially sub-matriculate into GSFA, or receive advanced standing from peer institutions. Architecture majors could then complete a master's in two years, instead of three. GSFA Dean Gary Hack said he believes an undergraduate Architecture major would level the playing field for Penn students entering a professional architecture program. Most graduate programs -- including the one at Penn -- require a bachelor's degree in Architecture before granting advanced standing. But recent graduates of the DOE program, he said, have been unable to receive first-year credit for their undergraduate work -- despite its heavy focus on architecture. "We want to give our [undergraduate] students the same advantages as students from Yale or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology," Hack said. "Cutting a year off of graduate school is a true financial advantage -- $30,000." The proposed program would also clear up the confusion that an ambiguous title like "Design of the Environment" brings when parents and prospective applicants call about Penn's Architecture program, Wesley said. "We get calls from parents who see 'DOE' and ask, 'Does that mean the Department of Energy?'" he said. Although the Architecture Department toyed around with the idea of creating an undergraduate major for almost three years, its proposal was finally endorsed by the GSFA faculty last week and will be submitted to CUE in the next few weeks.
(02/02/00 10:00am)
Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is riding the Internet revolution right down Locust Walk next Tuesday. The 1999 Time magazine "Man of the Year" -- who created an e-commerce empire from an online bookstore -- is set to discuss the business strategies that have made his company one of the vanguards of the Internet economy during a special taping of the PBS business program CEO Exchange. The three-hour, live program -- hosted by CNN Senior Analyst Jeff Greenfield -- will take place next Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theatre, before a crowd of mostly Wharton students and faculty members. Bezos will be joined on stage by Land's End CEO David Dyer, who will also address the challenges facing e-commerce. Both executives agreed to participate in a discussion moderated by Greenfield, and they will also take questions from Wharton faculty and students in the audience. According to Wharton Graduate Student Affairs Director Amy Orlov, Wharton conducted a special lottery this week and the winning business school students will be notified that they will receive one ticket to the event. Preference was given to MBA students, although about 200 of the 700 available seats were awarded to Wharton undergraduates. And while the event has so far been restricted to Wharton students, Orlov said that on Tuesday morning, ticketless students in Wharton and Penn's other schools will be able to place their names on a waiting list in Vance Hall, giving them first crack at any remaining seats. "We understand this might be of interest to the entire University," Orlov explained, "but in keeping with the spirit of CEO Exchange, first preference will be given to Wharton [MBAs] and undergraduates." She said PBS producers requested a crowd full of Whartonites for the business-oriented show. Wharton Graduate Association President Assaf Tarnopolsky was quick to point out the attraction of hosting some of the e-tailing's pioneers. "Bezos is a guy who went from Wall Street to the Internet and conquered it," he said. "He can be seen as the model that business students want to emulate today." Bezos founded the Seattle-based Amazon.com in 1995 as an online retailer specializing in books. The company has since expanded its product offerings to include free electronic greeting cards, online auctions, CDs, videos, DVDs, toys, games and electronics. And while Amazon.com has yet to realize a profit, it currently boasts a market capitalization of almost $23 billion. Dyer heads the Chicago-based clothing retailer Land's End, which offers traditional apparel through mail-order catalogues and via the Internet. The company went online in 1995.
(01/31/00 10:00am)
The money, given by College alumnus Christopher Browne, will endow five new professorships in SAS departments. Christopher Browne, chairman of the School of Arts and Sciences Board of Overseers and a 1969 College alumnus, will donate $10 million to endow five new professorships in SAS departments, University officials announced Friday. The donation is tied with five others for the largest contribution in SAS history and will provide financial backing for the school to increase the current 52 endowed chairs by 10 percent -- a goal outlined in last April's SAS Strategic Plan. The donation is unrestricted, meaning that the school can use it on whatever departments it wants. "It is a great step forward for us in our ability to attract and retain our most distinguished faculty members," SAS Dean Samuel Preston said. "These chairs? are extremely valuable because the dean can use them to identify the most strategically important areas." Over the next five years, one Browne Distinguished Professorship will be named in each of the three academic divisions of SAS -- the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences -- as well as two at-large chairs, which will be awarded to the most needy academic areas. Although Preston would not say which professors are likely candidates, the strategic plan calls for a more concentrated effort to recruit and retain top-rate professors in the English, Biology, Psychology, Political Science, History and Economics departments. Preston said endowed chairs serve both a symbolic and strategic purpose: they allow senior faculty members to be recognized for their work and also offer the University additional bargaining chips to retain leading faculty members who get offers to go elsewhere. "When Harvard comes along and offers a faculty member a chair, I am not in a position to respond effectively if we don't have one available," Preston said. In the past, SAS has typically been able to award just one endowed chair each year. With Browne's donation, that number will double for the next five years, Preston said. Although Browne had discussed making other significant donations when he met with University officials in December, he said he settled on endowing the new professorships as a way of showing his support for Preston's leadership and vision for SAS. "I didn't want a building. I wanted to have something with a long-term commitment to the School of Arts and Sciences," he explained. "Sam Preston has brought a new focus to SAS and this gift is a real boost to his efforts." Browne is managing director of the New York City-based investment management firm Tweedy, Browne and president of Tweedy, Browne mutual funds. Browne has made a number of other donations to the University and to SAS in particular. Most recently, he helped establish the Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics in the Political Science Department. He has also made contributions to help fund construction of the new life sciences building and to support undergraduate scholarships. According to Browne, this donation takes a different slant toward endowed professorships by redefining the criteria for excellence and emphasizing graduate and undergraduate teaching. A committee of top administrators -- including Preston, University President Judith Rodin and College Dean Richard Beeman -- will nominate senior faculty members for the honor. According to SAS Vice Dean of External Affairs Jean-Marie Kneeley, Browne's $10 million donation is tied for the single largest contribution in the school's history. Last April, University Trustee Robert Fox pledged that amount to endow two Fox Leadership chairs as well as the Robert A. Fox Leadership Lecture Series. In 1997, a $10 million gift from former University Trustees Chairman Roy Vagelos and his wife, Diana, helped establish the undergraduate program in molecular biology that bears their name. Browne has had a longstanding commitment to service for the University. In addition to serving for almost 20 years on the SAS Board of Overseers, Browne has been a University Trustee since 1991, during which time he has worked on several campus-wide academic policy and budget initiatives. He is also president of The Penn Club of New York.
