University Times

Pitt filled its top administrative slot June 20 when the Board of Trustees changed Mark Nordenberg's status from interim to permanent chancellor.

But later in the summer, Nordenberg created two new administrative vacancies by accepting the resignations of Athletic Director Oval Jaynes and Vice Chancellor for Student and Public Affairs Leon Haley.

Like other top Pitt administrators, Jaynes and Haley had offered their resignations to Nordenberg as a courtesy soon after the new chancellor was appointed.

Jaynes will remain as AD until a replacement is found. Robert P. Gallagher, assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs and director of the Counseling Center, will serve as interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs until a permanent successor to Haley is named. Haley will remain at Pitt as a faculty member in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA).

Besides needing to find a new, permanent athletic director and a chief official for Student Affairs, the Nordenberg administration has a number of other posts to fill with permanent successors to officials who, since 1995, have left Pitt for other jobs, resigned under pressure or retired.

One of those posts will be filled Jan. 1 when Carolyn Ban becomes the new dean of GSPIA. She currently is a public administration professor at the State University of New York at Albany.

Provost James Maher announced Ban's appointment Aug. 27. But on the same day, another Pitt dean — Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Peter Koehler — announced that he will resign in 1998. See GSPIA and FAS dean stories beginning on pages 1 and 6, respectively.

Meanwhile this summer, Pitt senior administrators called off a year-long search for a new dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business, saying the search failed to produce suitable candidates. A new search is expected to begin in September. Until a new business dean is found, Andrew Blair will continue as interim dean.

A unique case among Pitt administrators is that of Thomas P. Detre, who remains senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences despite announcing plans to retire three years ago, and again last summer. Two searches for Detre's successor were called off, and no new search is in the works.

The following are updates on various administrative vacancies and/or searches.

Athletics An eight-member search committee held its first meeting Aug. 12 to begin looking for Jaynes's successor. Jerome Cochran, assistant chancellor and interim vice chancellor for Business, chairs the committee.

Other members include two representatives of the Board of Trustees athletics committee, trustee Thomas Bigley (who chairs the board committee) and emeritus trustee John G. Conomikes; Ronald G. Brown, director of academic support service for student-athletes; Andrea Laughner, representing the Staff Association Council; John Withrow, representing the Student Government Board; and two faculty members of the University Senate athletics committee, Susan Albrecht and Nathan Hershey. Providing staff support to the committee are Margie Burke, from Cochran's office, and Joseph Phillips of the athletics department.

Cochran said the committee will seek nominations and applications through advertisements in local and national publications (including the Aug. 18 Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review), letters to commissioners of major athletic conferences and current ADs at NCAA Division IA schools, as well as less formal contacts.

"So far, there's been a reasonably steady flow of letters to me, recommending candidates," Cochran said. "I've received letters from people who are interested in the job, plus a number of phone calls nominating other people. But at this stage, we're not focusing our attention on any particular person or persons." He said there was "no truth whatsoever" to an Aug. 8 Post-Gazette report that the search is focusing on two men, Tom Beckett, athletic director at Yale and a former baseball player at Pitt, and Andy Urbanic, who oversees Florida State's football and baseball programs. Urbanic was an assistant football coach at Pitt under Jackie Sherrill and Foge Fazio.

"The best I can presume is that the Post-Gazette reporter talked with a number of people in the community, alumni and fans, and those two names were repeated by people in town. But there is not a scintilla of a foundation to that suggestion" that Pitt's AD search will focus on Beckett and Urbanic.

Would Cochran rule out those two men? "I wouldn't rule anybody out at this point," he replied.

The assistant chancellor vowed that the AD search will be "absolutely confidential." "We won't release any names [of candidates] until we've selected finalists," Cochran said.

As for a timetable, he said: "We have the luxury of our current athletic director agreeing to continue until a successor is selected. So there is no particular pressure to move with any haste." What kind of AD is Pitt searching for? "First and foremost," Cochran said, "we're looking for an individual of impeccable integrity, someone who clearly demonstrates a track record of running a good, solid, live-by-the-rules athletic department or having been associated with such a program." Cochran said the new AD should be a good representative of the University and be skilled in working with a broad range of people — student-athletes, fans and alumni as well as faculty, staff and administrators. "He or she also should have either a track record or observable ability to succeed in marketing, promotions and fundraising," Cochran said.

Under Jaynes, Pitt's athletic department lost $11 million during the last two years and the so-called "revenue-producing" teams — football and men's basketball — have suffered losing seasons. While Pitt has been able to raise sufficient matching funds for a series of renovations to Pitt Stadium, fundraising has lagged for the proposed convocation center/basketball arena.

Business and Finance On Feb. 22, the Board of Trustees approved then-Interim Chancellor Nordenberg's appointment of two administrators to take on duties formerly held by Senior Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Ben J. Tuchi, who had resigned three days earlier.

The interim appointees were Assistant Chancellor Cochran, whom Nordenberg named interim vice chancellor for Business, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget and Administration Arthur Ramicone, whom Nordenberg appointed interim vice chancellor for Finance.

Ramicone is responsible for Budget and Administration and the Controller's office. Cochran oversees Pitt's Business, Computing and Information Services, Facilities Management, and Human Resources functions.

According to Cochran, the senior administration has no immediate plans to hire a new senior vice chancellor to replace Tuchi. A decision on permanent Business and Finance appointments probably will wait until Coopers & Lybrand Consulting has completed its analysis of Pitt administrative efficiency, Cochran said. See story on page 3.

Business school In announcing that the University would re-launch its search for a new dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business and the undergraduate College of Business Administration, Provost Maher blamed the initial search's failure on the fact that Pitt was competing with a large number of other business schools for a new dean.

"We are operating in a very competitive environment when it comes to finding a new dean for the Katz school, but we feel it is important to continue our search until we are sure we have the right person," the provost said.

Some 60 other U.S. colleges and universities were searching for new business deans during the past year, according to Katz search committee chairperson Edward Sell, Distinguished Service Professor of Law emeritus. But in an April interview, Sell added: "Of those 60 business schools, we really were competing only against a fairly small number of the outstanding ones." A new Pitt business dean search, utilizing members of last year's search committee, is expected to begin in September, with the goal of finding a new dean by September 1997.

Until a new dean is found, Andrew Blair will continue to serve as interim dean, a post he assumed July 29. Blair is director of Pitt's International Business Center and a professor of business administration and economics.

"With Professor Blair as interim dean, I am confident that the school will have excellent leadership throughout the remainder of the search process," Maher said.

Finalists in this year's Pitt business dean search were: James Dworkin, associate dean of Purdue University's Krannert Graduate School of Management; Robert Forsythe, associate dean for faculty and development at the University of Iowa; Michael J. Houston, associate dean of faculty at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management; and Dana Johnson, dean of the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy at Wake Forest University.

Maher declined comment on the finalists, except to confirm that not all of them turned down the Pitt deanship for jobs elsewhere.

The new dean will succeed H.J. Zoffer, who retired this summer after 27 years as Pitt business school dean.

Health Sciences "At this point, no new search has been initiated" for a successor to Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Thomas Detre, said Pitt Director of Communications Ken Service.

Detre originally planned to retire on Aug. 31, 1993. But the first search for a successor ended that summer when the University was unable to reach an agreement with any of the four finalists. When that happened, Detre agreed to stay on.

He later announced plans to retire in summer 1995, but a second search (chaired by Nordenberg, who was between stints as interim provost and interim chancellor) was called off by the Board of Trustees. In explaining the decision, Board leaders said that naming a permanent successor to Detre should wait until the appointment of a new, permanent chancellor.

University Senate leaders and some other professors contend that Pitt never will be able to recruit a highly qualified Health Sciences senior vice chancellor unless the job is reconfigured. They say candidates view the position as being far too subordinate to that of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) President Jeffrey Romoff.

In 1992, Romoff took on administrative duties previously held by Detre when then-Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor gave the UPMC president the added title of senior vice chancellor for Health Administration, an academic position. Since that time, Detre has overseen only academic programs in the Health Sciences.

Critics say that Detre, with his great experience within the University and UPMC, has retained much of his administrative clout — but that no successor could follow Detre's act. Some people, including Senate Vice President Nathan Hershey, argue that Detre's position is redundant and should be eliminated.

Last fall, Nordenberg said he was considering merging the positions of Health Sciences senior vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine. Effective Nov. 1, 1995, he appointed George Michalopoulos interim dean of the medical school and associate vice chancellor for Health Sciences. The latter appointment was permanent. The interim deanship was expected to last until fall 1997.

Human Resources Darlene Lewis, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources since 1994, resigned July 31 to take a similar position at Vanderbilt University. Ronald W. Frisch, director of Compensation and Benefits, is serving as interim associate vice chancellor. Frisch told the University Times that he plans to apply for the job on a permanent basis.

Pitt's administration will begin searching for a permanent successor "soon after the beginning of the academic year, I would hope," said Assistant Chancellor Cochran, to whom Human Resources reports.

Pending completion of the current study by Coopers & Lybrand Consulting of Pitt administrative efficiency, Cochran said he can't guarantee that the head job at Human Resources will remain at the associate vice chancellor level. "We'll have to wait and see whether the consultants suggest an alternative to the way Human Resources currently operates. But at the current moment, I see no reason to change the title on that position or its reporting relationships," the assistant chancellor said.

Institutional Advancement Associate Chancellor Vijai Singh chairs the seven-member committee searching for a new vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement, Pitt's chief fundraiser. Singh said Chancellor Nordenberg has asked the committee to recommend finalists "as soon as possible — before December of this year, but sooner if we can." But according to Singh, Nordenberg has urged the committee to be selective. "The chancellor told us to recommend a list of people who are not merely capable fundraisers," Singh said. "They also need to be able to work effectively in the academic environment unique to the University of Pittsburgh." Besides being adept at working with corporate and foundation leaders, the new vice chancellor must be prepared to collaborate closely with deans and fundraising staff at individual Pitt schools, including the Health Sciences, Singh said. He or she also will need a thick skin, and should not bristle when second-guessed by trustees, alumni, faculty, staff and students, the associate chancellor added.

"We definitely need someone who has managed, or helped to manage, a big institutional fundraising campaign," Singh emphasized. The University's Board of Trustees and senior administration hope to launch a major Pitt campaign soon after hiring a new Institutional Advancement leader and developing long-range fundraising strategies and goals. To help set those strategies and goals, Pitt this summer hired the Chicago-based fundraising counseling firm of Grenzebach Glier and Associates, Inc. for a fee of $60,950.

Margaret McDonald has been Pitt interim vice chancellor since Lawrence Weber resigned in October 1995. McDonald had been assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs in the Health Sciences.

Besides Singh, the Institutional Advancement search committee includes J. Roger Glunt, immediate past president of the Pitt Alumni Association; nursing school Dean Ellen Beam Rudy; Assistant to the Chancellor Nancy D. Washington; two faculty members nominated by the University Senate, Phyllis Coontz of GSPIA and Marick F. Masters of the Katz Graduate School of Business; and a staff member nominated by the Staff Association Council, Carol S. Kenderes of Administrative and Policy Studies in the education school.

Student Affairs A search committee has not been formed yet to look for a permanent successor to Leon L. Haley, who resigned as vice chancellor for Student and Public Affairs Aug. 1.

Haley will remain at Pitt as a GSPIA faculty member. According to the news release announcing Haley's resignation, Haley "also will provide special assistance to the chancellor on a number of the University's important community outreach initiatives." Haley held a number of administrative and faculty positions at Pitt from 1970 to 1985, including GSPIA associate dean (1975 to 1984) and acting dean (1984 to 1985). In 1985, Haley left Pitt to become president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Pittsburgh.

He returned to Pitt in March 1994 as executive director of Public Affairs, a job created by then-Chancellor O'Connor in an effort to coordinate and improve the University's public relations and community relations activities. In September 1994, O'Connor added Student Affairs to Haley's responsibilities by appointing him vice chancellor for Student and Public Affairs. That move came one month after the resignation of Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs William Harmon. Haley continued in that job last year at the request of then-Interim Chancellor Nordenberg.

In announcing Haley's resignation, Nordenberg in a written statement thanked him for "answering the call of duty" and serving the University during a period of particular need. "We are grateful that he was willing to shoulder important responsibilities in Student Affairs, and we now look forward to his continuing contributions in other areas," Nordenberg said.

In announcing Robert P. Gallagher's appointment as interim vice chancellor, Nordenberg said: "Dr. Gallagher is a very accomplished student services professional who is highly regarded on this campus and within his own discipline. I know that our students, and the University as a whole, will benefit from his service as interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs." The senior administration has not decided whether to drop "public affairs" from the job title of Haley's successor, said Assistant Chancellor Cochran.

— Bruce Steele