University Times

Approximately 85 nominations and 15 applications have been received for the position of senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences.

Search committee chairperson Mark Nordenberg said that the nominations and applications have been received from across the country and that the committee is pleased with the response.

"When you consider that our first ad probably ran only three weeks ago and that our last ad will run this week, it is a pretty good number," he noted.

The search for a new senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences was reopened in October. It is the second search undertaken to find a successor for Thomas Detre, the current senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences.

Detre announced plans to retire more than two years ago and originally planned to leave the University on Aug. 31, 1993. But, after the first search failed, Detre agreed to remain at his post until a successor was found. The first search ended in summer 1993 when the University was unable to reach agreement with any of the four finalists for the position.

Nordenberg said that the new committee "is determined to do everything that it can to make certain that there is a new senior vice chancellor by the end of the academic year." Some members of the University community felt that one of the reasons that the first search failed was because candidates for the position viewed the job as subordinate to that of the president of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

Since June 1992, Detre has overseen only academic programs in Health Sciences. UPMC president Jeffrey Romoff assumed administrative duties previously held by Detre when Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor named Romoff senior vice chancellor for Health Administration and president of UPMC in 1992.

The possibility that the search might again fail because the senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences position may be viewed by some candidates as subordinate to that of senior vice chancellor for Health Administration and president of UPMC was expressed by Thomas Zullo, a professor in the School of Dental Medicine, at the Oct. 27 public forum on the search.

"The fact that there is that dual position, that's what my concern is," Zullo said after the meeting. "It is a dual position and the one already has an incumbent in it which makes for potential difficulties in attracting quality candidates." Zullo also told the search committee that having both a senior vice chancellor of Health Sciences and a provost means that faculty from the Health Sciences schools are in effect subject to an additional layer of review when it comes to tenure.

As it now stands in the Health Sciences, when a faculty member is being considered for tenure, he or she must be approved by the tenured faculty in the department, a promotions committee, the dean of the school, the senior vice chancellor of Health Sciences and, finally, the provost.

In other schools at Pitt, faculty members up for tenure must only be approved by tenured faculty in the department, a promotion committee, the dean and the provost, which is one less step than in the Health Sciences.

"The thing that I think is simply critical is that the faculty in the Health Sciences do not have to have this additional step to go through," Zullo said.

Zullo also told the search committee that he is troubled by the way tenure is granted to the faculty in the Health Sciences. He said research grants given to professors are often taken into consideration when tenure is awarded and that dental medicine's emphasis on clinical treatment rather than research has hampered its faculty in terms of tenure.

"By us having to follow the mold in the Health Sciences, that is what happened," Zullo said.

When asked by Nordenberg what qualities he would like to see in a new senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences, Zullo said he would prefer someone with a strong background in research and strong administrative skills.

John Close, another faculty member in the School of Dental Medicine, echoed Zullo's concerns to the search committee.

Like the first open forum on Oct. 20, this second forum drew scant attention from the University community. Zullo and Close were the only two people to appear at the second forum.

–Mike Sajna