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April 27, 1995

Trustees name Roddey chairperson of search committee for new chancellor

The Board of Trustees has appointed Pittsburgh advertising executive James C. Roddey to head a search committee to find a new Pitt chancellor.

Current Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor announced this month that he will resign at the end of the 1995-96 academic year or when his successor is named, whichever comes first.

Roddey, a Pitt trustee and managing general partner of Allegheny Media, said he will meet next week with trustees chairperson Farrell Rubenstein and chairperson-designate J.W. Connolly to determine which University constituencies will be represented on the search committee and how many representatives each group will have.

"I would imagine the committee will include some deans and trustees, and certainly faculty and students and the [four] outlying campuses will be represented," Roddey said. "I don't know if any decision has been made yet about [including] staff, but that's certainly possible." The April 19 Pitt news release announcing Roddey's appointment said the committee will include trustees, faculty, students and "other candidates." Staff Association Council (SAC) President Darlene Harris said she considered it "ridiculous" and "a real slight against staff" that the announcement said nothing about staff representation. "Staff are already represented on Board of Trustees committees and in searches for senior University administrators. We shouldn't have to ask" for representation on the chancellor search committee, Harris said.

Staff and alumni initially were left off the 24-member committee whose search led to the hiring of O'Connor in 1991, but such representatives later were added. However, other campus groups, including the Black Action Society and the College of General Studies Student Government, lobbied unsuccessfully to be represented on that committee.

Roddey said: "There are a lot of constituencies, and all of them probably can't be satisfied. But we will try to accommodate as many as we can." The University Senate has been told it may elect seven faculty members to the committee, according to Senate President James Holland. The seven will include two faculty members from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, two from the professional schools, two from the Health Sciences schools and one from the regional campuses, Holland said.

Ballots will be mailed to faculty in those four areas as soon as Senate officers confirm that the nominees are willing to serve, said Holland. The Senate's nominating committee recommended the candidates, he said.

The Board of Trustees may name additional faculty to the committee to make sure women and minorities are represented, Holland noted.

Roddey said he has not been given a deadline for finalizing the committee membership nor for beginning and ending the search, but that he hopes to accomplish those things as soon as possible.

Trustees chairperson Rubenstein said in a written statement: "The selection next academic year of a new chancellor is the most important item on our agenda, and I and J.W. Connolly, chairperson-designate, look forward to the trustees' advice and support." No formal nominations or applications have been submitted for the chancellor's job, "although a few names have been mentioned to me as being good prospects," Roddey said.

Both internal and outside candidates will be considered, he added.

Until the search committee begins to meet, Roddey said, it would be premature for him to specify the qualities Pitt's next chancellor will need to have. "But I think there are some obvious characteristics that we'll look for: someone who is a good communicator, who can raise money, who is a consensus-builder, who has a distinguished record — all of those things would go into the search for any University president."

— Bruce Steele


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