University Times

3 Pitt administrators will resign next year

Three Pitt administrators have announced they will step down in summer 2000.

Robert Gallagher — who last week was named vice chancellor for Student Affairs, after serving in an interim capacity since 1996 — plans to retire on June 30, 2000.

Burkart Holzner, director of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS) since 1980, will resign on June 30, 2000, to become a full-time faculty member.

And Kenneth F. Metz, dean of the School of Education since 1990, will resign on Aug. 31, 2000, to return to the education faculty.

"These are all voluntary decisions," emphasized Provost James Maher, who announced the moves April 9-13 in letters to deans, senior staff and others in the University community.

Maher said he hopes to name successors to Holzner and Metz by next spring. He didn't specify a timetable for replacing Gallagher, but said search committees will be formed in coming weeks for all three positions.

Gallagher

"I've worked here for 33 years," Gallagher said, "and I feel like I've made a lot of good contributions, but now I'm ready to move on and do some other things.

"I plan to stay in touch with the University. I'll still be working one day a week in the Counseling Center, where I worked for about 25 years."

Gallagher said he also plans to continue speaking on humor and stress reduction at professional conferences. A former amateur magician, he said: "I've thought about maybe trying that again and going out and entertaining kids."

Provost Maher credited Gallagher with improving collaboration between Student Affairs and Pitt academic units. Gallagher also has enhanced living-learning, service-learning and supplemental instruction, and has expanded placement activities, counseling services and new student programming, the provost wrote.

"He has also worked to improve life on campus by initiating The Pitt Promise, a values-driven guide for a more civil community; PITTIP, a monthly newsletter for students; the Pitt Pride campaign; and the Pitt Pathway, a cross-departmental program for assisting students with their career planning," Maher wrote.

Gallagher directed the University Counseling Center from 1971 to 1996. He also is an associate clinical professor in the education school, where he has taught courses in the history of counseling psychology, ethics, and clinical skills.

"I was kind of a late starter myself with my education," said Gallagher, who worked in a paper mill before enrolling in college at age 25. "I think, in a way, that helped me with my career advising students. Sometimes, students think if they don't know what life is all about by the time they're 22, they're in trouble.

"I'm pleased to have contributed to the success of many students," Gallagher said. "There's no more rewarding work."

Holzner

"By the time I resign as UCIS director, I will be 69 years old," Holzner said. "It seems to me that at that age, I should be doing something for the University other than continuing to perform a job that is very enjoyable and very rewarding but also very demanding, both intellectually and physically.

"I've learned a lot over the years that I would like to transmit through teaching to students and colleagues."

After June 2000, Holzner will be UCIS Professor and professor of sociology and public and international affairs.

"I'm in excellent health, and I'm looking forward to teaching for several years, at least, after I resign as director," Holzner said.

During Holzner's years as director, UCIS's endowment grew from $1 million to more than $17 million. The center initiated "an array of exciting programs," Maher wrote, including the Governor's School for International Studies, the International Business Center, the Center for West European Studies, and programs with Pitt professional schools and the Nationality Rooms.

Also during Holzner's tenure, five UCIS centers attained the status of National Resource Centers under Title VI: East Asian studies, Latin American studies, Russian and East European studies, West European studies, and the International Business Center in cooperation with the Katz Graduate School of Business. Also, the Center for West European Studies was selected as one of 10 European Union Centers in the United States.

Holzner's "innumerable contributions" to Pitt's international agenda and area studies centers "bring great luster and are of enormous importance to the University," Maher wrote.

Metz

Metz said he agrees with management and organization theorist Peter Drucker's concept of "effectiveness periods" — beyond which, administrators begin to lose their edge.

"For me, 8-10 years as dean feels like the optimal period I can be effective in this job, given my energies," Metz said. "Not that other people can't serve effectively as deans for more than 10 years, but I thought next summer would be a good time to return to my academic work" in exercise physiology.

As dean of the education school since 1990, Metz has guided the school through a difficult planning process. What was once a comprehensive education school with 35 programs and 140 tenured and tenure-stream faculty has become a more focused unit with 12 programs and 75 tenured/tenure-stream faculty.

"It's become a more efficient school under Ken's leadership, while remaining a high-quality unit," Provost Maher said.

During Metz's deanship, the education school "entered into very productive collaborations with the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Wilkinsburg Schools," the provost wrote. "He was central to the development of a new undergraduate program in movement science and the master of health promotion and education joint degree in the School of Education and the Graduate School of Public Health. He also provided leadership in the school's efforts to encourage faculty use of appropriate technology for instructional purposes and the development of a School of Education management information system."

Metz also served on the Council of Deans' steering committee, numerous University-wide committees, and as faculty athletics representative to the NCAA.

"It's been a rewarding nine years as dean," Metz said. "When I step down next summer I'll be 64, which should leave me with some productive years as a teacher and researcher."

–Bruce Steele and Peter Hart