University Times

The number of impending Pitt dean vacancies increased to five this month when two of the University's three arts and sciences deans — Mary L. Briscoe, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Mary Lou Soffa, graduate studies dean in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) — announced they will resign next summer to return to teaching and research.

The two deans announced their plans jointly but said they reached their decisions to resign independently of each other. Provost James Maher said a committee will be formed to consider changing the current administrative structure of FAS.

Committees already have been formed in the searches for deans of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) and the Katz Graduate School of Business.

Interim Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said this week that he has begun discussing logistics of a search for a new School of Medicine dean with Thomas Detre, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences. Pitt's current medical dean, George Bernier Jr., will resign Nov. 1 to become dean and vice president of academic affairs at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Meanwhile, the committee searching for a new, permanent chancellor met for the first time Sept. 8 and plans a series of open meetings at all five Pitt campuses to give faculty, staff and students the chance to tell the committee what they're looking for in a new chancellor.

The following are updates on the various administrative searches.

Arts and Sciences Briscoe and Soffa said their resignations had nothing to do with the recent change in chancellor.

"I have a lot of confidence in Mark Nordenberg," Briscoe said. "He was the first one I spoke with because I didn't want him to feel that this has anything to do with him being interim chancellor because it certainly does not. I think he is already doing a great job." Briscoe pointed out that it is not unprecedented for several deanships to be open at the same time. In 1986 and 1987, Pitt hired nine new deans, she said.

Provost Maher said Briscoe and Soffa assured him that they had made their decisions independently and that there had been no pressure on them to resign. Both said they wanted to return to their respective fields.

Briscoe joined the Pitt faculty in 1972. Before taking over as dean of CAS in 1987, she directed the women's studies program and chaired the English department.

As dean, Briscoe instituted a number of programs aimed at undergraduate students, including freshman studies, a one-credit course that helps acclimate new students to college life, and the Summer Transitional Educational Program, which assists students who need to improve their academic skills before entering college.

By the time Briscoe leaves her post on Sept. 1, 1996, she will have been an administrator for 24 years. "It seemed to me it was time to do something else," Briscoe said. "I am really looking forward to being able to teach undergraduates again." Soffa joined the computer science faculty in 1977. She was appointed dean of Graduate Studies in 1991. Among her accomplishments is a significant increase in the number of African American graduate students in the arts and sciences.

"My field of computer science is a very fast moving field," Soffa said. "Although I've been able to continue with some of my research, I feel I am falling behind. I want to continue with research and teaching, so I felt it was time for me to go back to my department." Both CAS and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences graduate program "will benefit for many years to come from the welcome and active involvement" of Briscoe and Soffa, Maher said.

The provost also announced that a study of the arts and sciences administrative structure will be conducted before any action is taken to replace the two deans. He said the resignations are an opportunity to refine job descriptions in the unit, and address a number of criticisms that have been voiced about its administration over the years.

"Having two of the three positions vacant, and long-standing criticisms on campus, it seems much more appropriate to study what the job descriptions should be rather than immediately initiate searches," Maher said.

Calling arts and sciences "a very complicated organization" that is at "the core of the University in many, many ways," Maher pointed out that its departments provide the theoretical underpinning of almost all of Pitt's professional schools and educates most of the undergraduates. He said it also supplies a significant fraction of the undergraduate credits to students who do not obtain an Arts and Sciences degree.

Maher emphasized that he does not have any particular reforms in mind. "I genuinely want to find out what structure would make the Arts and Sciences faculty feel that they were able to deliver their services to other schools and run their own graduate programs and undergraduate programs and research programs the best," he said.

Over the next two months, Maher said, a committee will be appointed and elected to study the arts and sciences' administrative structure. The group's recommendations are expected by the end of the academic year.

Chancellor The search committee met Sept. 8 and announced that it will hold open meetings with the University community from Sept. 20-Oct. 9. See Chancellor Search Update on this page and hearings schedule on page 11.

James C. Roddey, search committee chairperson and Pitt trustee, said: "We have been charged with finding the best candidates possible, not to hesitate to get on with the job but not to be guided by any time frame. We have a very capable interim chancellor in place, so we are not in any panic to find someone. We are going to take our time and be very deliberate." But Roddey added, "We have been asked to recommend three or four finalists to the Board of Trustees, and we should be able to complete that job within six-to-eight months once we begin interviewing candidates." Pitt has hired search consultants Korn/Ferry International to help in finding candidates and checking their backgrounds, Roddey said. Although the committee is placing job ads in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the international edition of The Economist, among other publications, "it is likely that some very good candidates will not apply," Roddey said. "It's the job of the search firm to seek out those candidates and a do a lot of reference checking." He said Korn/Ferry and the search committee will verify candidates' academic degrees and scholarly records — "not so much to evaluate their level of academic achievement but to determine whether they're being honest about it.

"We will track every position that they [candidates] have held, what they accomplished and the reasons they left. We will talk to both supporters and critics. We will investigate any controversies in which they have been involved. You can't be in a leadership position and not have some controversial issues come up. Their characters will be checked, their standing in the community, personal habits, everything." The committee officially began accepting nominations and applications following its first meeting, but the group already had received some before that, Roddey said. He declined to say how many the committee has received to date or whether any were Pitt personnel.

Roddey said the full search committee will meet monthly but that much of the group's work will be done by its subcommittees, which will review applications and handle specific tasks such as updating a detailed job description for the chancellor.

Business The Provost's office announced Sept. 13 that law professor W. Edward Sell will chair the committee searching for a successor to H.J. Zoffer, who plans to step down as Katz Graduate School of Business (KGSB) dean as early as June if a new dean is found by then.

In addition to Sell, appointed members of the committee include James Colker, managing partner, CEO Venture Fund; David M. Roderick, retired chairperson, USX Corp.; and KGSB professors Andrew R. Blair, John H. Evans and Kenneth M. Lehn. Elected members include KGSB professors John C. Camillus, Esther Gal-Or, Prakash Mirchandani and James B. Parham. Maureen Jenkins is the elected KGSB staff representative.

KGSB students will meet next week to elect their representative to the committee, said Sara K. Ferlan, who is the Provost office liaison to the committee.

GSPIA The search committee held its first meeting last week. It includes appointed members Morton Coleman of social work (committee chairperson); Brenda F. Berrian, Africana studies; Raymond R. Christman, president, Southwestern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Centers; and GSPIA professors Stephen C. Farber and John Mendeloff. Elected members are: GSPIA professors Billie R. DeWalt, Laura A. Hastings, Katherine Terrell and Sandra D. William-son; GSPIA staff member Barbara L. Porter, and graduate student Leslie Mohr.

Davis Bobrow resigned as GSPIA dean Jan. 6 under pressure from the provost, who said Bobrow's management style and philosophy conflicted with his own. GSPIA professor Martin Staniland has been the school's interim dean since March 13.

— Bruce Steele and Mike Sajna