University Times

If Microsoft mastermind Bill Gates applies to be dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business (KGSB), should Pitt officials interview him? Or reject him out of hand because he lacks an advanced degree? That question arose during a pair of public hearings sponsored by the KGSB dean search committee on Oct. 12.

It was a hypothetical but revealing example of the choice that a business school — perhaps more than any other professional school — faces in hiring a dean: Do you give priority to candidates' academic accomplishments or real-world experience? Should you go with the Ph.D. who can recruit top-flight faculty and students, and boost the school's national ranking? Or the CEO who can raise funds and place the school's graduates with Fortune 500 companies? KGSB search committee chairperson Ed Sell, who raised the billionaire-versus-bookworm question, offered his own answer: "Obviously, the perfect candidate doesn't exist," he said. Therefore, in searching for a new business dean Pitt should be willing to consider successful managers who lack full-time academic experience (or, in Gates's case, even a business degree) as well as brilliant scholars who have never been corporate executives, Sell said.

Search committee members said they intentionally worded the job advertisement for the KGSB deanship to say that candidates should have "appropriate" academic qualifications rather than specific degrees or university job experience. "The committee feels a doctorate would be highly desirable [in a dean candidate], but we left it open to attract people who are appropriate candidates in other ways," said committee member Andrew Blair, a KGSB professor.

Regarding the job ad, Sell complained that the $3,000 advertising budget allotted to the committee by the Provost's office is barely enough to pay for one small ad in The Economist, and not enough to buy an ad in one of the Wall Street Journal's regional editions (let alone the Journal's national edition, which charges about $9,000 for a 2 column X 5 inch ad, Sell said). Rather than buy ads in those publications, the committee planned to advertise in the Chronicle of Higher Education (on Oct. 20) along with business journals and newsletters.

(Provost James Maher told the University Times that he will discuss dean search advertising budgets with the chairpersons of current search committees.) Sell said the Katz school committee also plans to meet with representatives of the Wall Street Journal's Pittsburgh bureau and other publications in the hope of drumming up free news and feature coverage of the KGSB search. Copies of the Chronicle ad will be mailed, with accompanying letters, to deans of 310 graduate business programs, Sell added.

Dennis Slevin, one of five business faculty members who made statements to the committee, said four qualities are needed in the new dean: good management skills ("The school could be managed much more effectively and efficiently than it is now," Slevin said); leadership skills and a sense of institutional vision (KGSB faculty feel the school lacks direction, he said); fund-raising skills and connections among the business community; and strong academic values.

Professor Edward Sussna said, "I have seen a variety of ups and downs at this school in the 37 years I've been here. Right now, we are on a slippery slope, hanging on with our fingernails." He added: "I think it is absolutely critical that we settle the issue of the deanship as soon as possible. Tomorrow would not be too soon." Sell said the search committee will begin reviewing applications Nov. 30. "Every committee member will review every candidate's file," he said. The committee is scheduled to give Provost James Maher a list of recommended finalists by Jan. 15. "Come hell or high water, you are going to have a new dean by July 1 if I have anything to do with it," Sell told KGSB faculty.

The new dean will succeed H.J. Zoffer, 65, who plans to retire as early as June if his successor is hired by then. Zoffer's 27-year tenure makes him the longest-serving dean of a major U.S. business school or of any school at Pitt.

Faculty and search committee members agreed that KGSB's Board of Visitors needs to do more to promote the school, raise money for it and recruit dean candidates. Sell said he would meet with the board to ask for its help in the dean search.

Search committee members outnumbered the audience at the faculty-only hearing, held from noon to 1 p.m. Attendance was even more "underwhelming" at a morning session for students and staff, Sell noted. Only two students and no staff members showed up.

One of the students, MBA candidate Scott Esser, said he favored hiring a dean who is an experienced business manager and fund-raiser, well known at least within the local business community if not nationally. "Ideally, it would be good if the person had strong academic qualifications too," he said.

Asked by committee members for his opinion of Pitt's MBA program, Esser called it solid and well-run, although he said that some of the required courses he took early in the program "were not very challenging or relevant. I felt they had little to do with preparing someone for a business career." Esser added that local employers don't seem particularly impressed by a Pitt business degree, and assign much higher status to job candidates with degrees from Carnegie Mellon University's business school.

Wendy Bailey, who represents KGSB doctoral students on the search committee, said she and her fellow Ph.D. candidates hope the new dean will do more than the school's current administration to provide funds for fourth-year doctoral students. KGSB cuts off funding to its Ph.D. students after three years, yet nearly all of them require longer to complete the program, Bailey said.

GSPIA search hearing draws few At another sparsely attended hearing, this one sponsored by the committee searching for a new dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA), committee chairperson Morton Coleman reported that committee members will begin reviewing files of applicants and nominees on Dec. 15.

In mid-February, the search committee will bring candidates to the Pittsburgh campus, and the committee hopes to submit the names of 3-5 finalists to Provost Maher in February, Coleman said. "Hopefully, the job will be filled by July 1," he said.

— Bruce Steele