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March 18, 2010

Provost search forum draws comments

Suggestions as to what makes a good provost were the order of the day at a recent open forum.

Pitt is seeking a successor to Provost James V. Maher, who is stepping down after 16 years from his administrative role to return to the physics faculty. A 21-member search committee, chaired by Randy Juhl, vice chancellor for Research Conduct and Compliance and Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacy, heard comments from members of Pitt’s five campuses during the March 5 Pittsburgh campus hearing, which was broadcast to the regional campuses via teleconference and also was webcast.

Randy Juhl, chair of the provost’s search committee, center, addresses a group of faculty, staff and students at a March 5 open forum with participation from the four regional campuses via videoconference. At left is Assistant Chancellor B. Jean Ferketish, secretary to the committee.

Randy Juhl, chair of the provost’s search committee, center, addresses a group of faculty, staff and students at a March 5 open forum with participation from the four regional campuses via videoconference. At left is Assistant Chancellor B. Jean Ferketish, secretary to the committee.

Pitt already had received more than 150 applicants and nominees for the provost position, Juhl told the forum audience. “Out of those, about 35 have expressed an interest and said, ‘Yes, consider me an active candidate,’” Juhl said. “That will be paired down, stepwise, to active-and-qualified candidates, and then to a short list of 10-15 candidates from which the committee will choose maybe eight-10 candidates to have off-site interviews with.”

The committee expects to recommend four-six unranked candidates to Chancellor Mark Nordenberg by the end of May. Pitt hopes to have a new provost in place by the start of the fall term, Juhl said.

All the work of the committee will be strictly confidential, he added.

Academic search firm R. William Funk and Associates of Dallas, Texas, has been hired to help the committee identify national candidates and check credentials.

At the committee’s first meeting in February, Juhl noted, the chancellor gave his charge and supplied some of the characteristics he finds most important in a new provost, including that he or she be compatible with Nordenberg.

“At the top of Mark’s list was values, both academic values and basic integrity. His benchmark for that is to have someone who, through their actions and activities and career, would make their parents proud,” Juhl said.

“We want somebody who walks the straight and narrow. In general, the administrative team at this institution is relatively conservative in taking steps. We always continue to move forward, but we’re not big about jumping off cliffs. We want somebody who walks that road with us.”

Nordenberg also listed ambition as a desirable trait, ambition for the institution first and foremost, but also personal ambition, Juhl reported. “Needing to have an institution-first attitude was also one of the desirable characteristics. Very often the person in that kind of position has to forgo many of their own personal activities.”

Juhl said, “[The chancellor] then went on to say that some of these values are contrasting or opposing and it’s the balance of them that will end up being important. He wants a provost that both is competitive and collaborative and knows when to be each. There are some times when we have competitions within the University, and a little of that is good; most times we have collaborations that we need to do in order to get things done, and very often we’re competing, at least in our minds, against other universities. You’ll find another hallmark of this administrative team is to be very competitive. We like to think we’re better than other universities and we like to select data that show us how to get there. We like to be data-driven.”

One self-evident characteristic is that the provost must have academic breadth, Juhl said. “The provost has a wide range of activities to oversee and disciplines to deal with. He or she needs to be able to talk Japanese armor from a historical perspective at one time, and then talk about nano-tubules and that science in the next conversation. Not only does a provost need to have some knowledge of the wide range of disciplines, but also the ability to appreciate, encourage and accommodate the wide range of faculty activities,” he said. “Needing communication skill, both written and speaking skill, is another thing that goes without saying.”

The chancellor also favors a provost with a nurturing character, Juhl reported. “Very often the provost needs to get satisfaction from someone else doing well what they [themselves] used to do. You see a faculty member or a new dean make a substantial contribution and to know that you plowed the field for them to grow whatever they’re doing — you need to take satisfaction from that,” he said. “And lastly Mark said the new provost needs to be strong when it’s required and gentle when it’s required, getting the most out of everybody and making the environment as convivial as it can be.”

Kirk Savage, chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture advocated re-examining Pitt’s administrative culture and structure.

Kirk Savage, chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture advocated re-examining Pitt’s administrative culture and structure.

The forum was scheduled for two hours but ended 40 minutes early when the last person addressed the committee. Among the suggestions, comments and questions were:

• Pitt-Greensburg President Sharon Smith said, “There are two classes of qualified provost candidates: the lifers and those who are leap-frogging to another position. I believe I’m correct in assuming that Pitt’s preference is truly for a lifer. But, how do you discriminate among the candidates to identify that kind of a person?”

Juhl responded: “Because we’re in a very attractive place to be, it would be nice to have on a resume that one was the provost here when in search of a presidency or chancellorship.

“We’re looking for someone who has the ability to leap, but would be just as happy to stay where they are. You’d like as a minimum that somebody would stay for five-seven years and do a great job and be attractive to someplace else, and then they have to decide if the grass is greener or not.”

• Pitt-Titusville President William Shields said, “I certainly affirm the list of qualifications that Chancellor Nordenberg has listed for the committee that he would like to see in a new provost. I would especially affirm the qualification of personal compatibility between the chancellor and the provost.

“Second … the new provost should have a sensitivity to the role and the mission of the regional campuses. I think that’s a very important characteristic and qualification, certainly for those of us who labor for the University on the regional campuses,” Shields said.

Regarding personal compatibility of the chancellor and the new provost, Juhl responded, “It isn’t easy being in either position even when things are going well. So it is important to have the same kinds of values and interests and be willing to support each other and work together well.”

Juhl added, “I know that the search committee as well as the chancellor have a great affinity for and affection for the regional campuses. And we will make sure that the candidates are made aware of that.”

• Drew Armstrong, director of the architectural studies program on the Pittsburgh campus, said, “My interest is in a provost who really is committed to the development of undergraduate programs at this University. It’s not so much programs that are extant that I’m concerned about. Programs such as mine involve a complex interaction with a whole range of specialties at the University that happen to fall within multiple schools. So there are tiny bits of bridging that are happening and that’s what I’m looking for more of.

Kathy O’Connor, a staff member in computer science and a recent College of General Studies alumna, said she hoped there would be a female provost’s signature on her next Pitt diploma.

Kathy O’Connor, a staff member in computer science and a recent College of General Studies alumna, said she hoped there would be a female provost’s signature on her next Pitt diploma.

“My point is there are certain kinds of education with a complexity that, to move forward, escapes me as a director, because I do not have the authority or power [to branch out].”

The school and departmental breakdown at Pitt is static, Armstrong said. Due to the lack of any schools of architecture or graduate programs in the region, “we must send students away. We cannot either keep them for graduate-level education in my discipline nor can we attract them from outside the region simply because we do not have a school of architecture. How do you get to add a new department or a new school?” he asked.

Juhl responded, “Times change, needs change, demands change. I think the new provost has to be very aware of that.”

• Several members of the audience expressed concern about the learning curve during the transition period when a new provost is becoming acclimated to the duties.

In response to those concerns, Juhl said. “The chancellor talked to us about that. He told us we can’t expect to hire a provost that has 16 years of experience here at Pitt.

“What happens in most jobs, you acquire responsibility the longer you’re in there. So there will have to be priorities on what is essential, a hierarchy of needs for the University that the provost will address in turn,” he said.

“One of the advantages a new person would have is that the Provost’s office has people in place who know what they’re doing, and there is a core of [senior officers] in place who have been there and know what they’re doing. And Mark is an excellent mentor.”

Search committee member Dennis Looney, chair of the Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures, added, “The chancellor did say there is no way an incoming provost will be able to do all that Jim Maher has been able to do. The chancellor is saying he will be the structure in place and will be able to take on certain of the things Jim Maher is currently doing as the new provost is learning the job.”

• Jean Ferguson Carr, director of the women’s studies program, told the committee, “It’s important to think about diversity and to have as rich and varied a pool as we can manage. But it seems to me that diversity is also an issue to ask candidates to give us their advice about, to ask them about their knowledge and insight.”

In approaching diversity, Carr said, a new provost must take note of how the make-up of the country is changing.

“I believe there are ways of thinking about diversity that are somewhat new,” Carr said. “We deal with a fairly old model, seeing diversity primarily in terms of black and white race, rather than thinking about many ethnicities and language groups, and so on.” Carr also recommended thinking about issues of diversity in curriculum and in research agendas.”

She noted that Pitt has had great success in recent years in building a diversified student body.

“At the same time, given the economic times, we have had to hold back in terms of tenured [faculty] so that much of our undergraduate teaching is done by adjunct faculty,” Carr said. “One of the many effects of that is there is a stagnation in curriculum. It makes it very difficult for a large adjunct faculty to transform the curriculum. They’re pretty much pressured by the nature of their job into teaching the same courses. I would urge people to think about diversity not only as identity but as an intellectual issue.”

Juhl responded that the committee would implement Carr’s suggestions during the interview process. He added, “Diversity, with regard to gender, is very important to the committee, and I’ve looked at the pool and there are a number of very qualified women in that pool.”

• Kirk Savage, chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture, said, “My question has to do with the administrative culture and structure of this institution, about whether the new provost will be selected because he or she fits into that structure, or whether the new provost might have some freedom to re-think the current administrative culture and structure here.”

Savage acknowledged that a chain of command is necessary to avoid chaos. “But the chain of command also tends to reinforce the silo effect, which makes it more difficult for departments and schools and programs to create the kinds of collaborative connections that the administration also wants us to create, that we all want to create here. How do we create programs that actually do not exist in a departmental or school silo? In our jurisdiction, for example, we have a University Art Gallery that has no business being in a departmental silo,” Savage said.

“The question is: How might a provost maintain a chain of command while at the same time creating flexibility that allows for networking to happen around the University and across the silos, to break down the silos?”

Savage noted that sophisticated social-networking tools are available to be harnessed and directed to encourage this kind of activity, making it more possible to have dialogues across the divisions, rather than sticking to a hierarchical organization.

Juhl responded: “There are on the books opportunities for those kinds of cross-disciplinary, cross-departmental, cross-schools organizations to spring up in the form of institutes and centers. I know there is a preference for treating proposals that come from various disparate groups more favorably than those that come from more isolated groups. To the greater or lesser extent those opportunities are utilized, I understand your question.

“More directly, part of the job description of the provost is to look to see how we’re functioning and if function can be improved through different kinds of organizations. That’s kind of inherent in the job,” Juhl said.

• Pitt-Bradford staff member Kimberly Marcott Weinberg said, “From my personal standpoint, I would like to see Pitt place a larger emphasis on technology and distance learning. Are there any plans to make that a priority for the new provost?” she asked.

Juhl responded: “The Provost’s office, over the last 15 years under Jim’s leadership, has taken over command of our technology programs, and I see no reason that should not continue. The distance learning we do between campuses I think has been reasonably successful, and hopefully we would do more of that. One of the questions we’ll have to pose to candidates is where does distance learning go outside of our immediate ‘family.’ Is that a business we want to get into and does it stand up to the same kinds of standards that we adhere to?”

Search committee member Gerald Holder, U.S. Steel Dean of the Swanson School of Engineering, added that the Council of Deans annually discusses distance learning with an eye to improving it and expanding it. “There has been an expansion of distance learning over the years,” he said.

Pitt has posted information on the search for a new provost, including how and where to submit applications and nominations, at www.provostsearch.pitt.edu//index.php.

The committee will accept input until a new provost is named, Juhl said.

—Peter Hart

Drew Armstrong, director of the architectural studies program on the Pittsburgh campus, lobbied for a new provost who is committed to expanding undergraduate programs across disciplines.

Drew Armstrong, director of the architectural studies program on the Pittsburgh campus, lobbied for a new provost who is committed to expanding undergraduate programs across disciplines.


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