University Times

Search committees have recommended finalists to Provost James Maher for a new Greensburg campus president and a new dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business and the College of Business Administration.

Meanwhile, the search for a new senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences is officially underway.

And Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said this week that he hopes to hire a new administrator to oversee Pitt publications and media relations "in the relatively foreseeable future." Business dean The search committee for a new dean of the Katz Graduate School of Business and the College of Business Administration (CBA) has presented a list of three unranked finalists to Provost Maher. They include:

* P. George Benson, dean of Faculty Management at Rutgers University.

* Eddie N. Moore Jr., president of Virginia State University, in Petersburg, Va.

* Frederick W. Winter, dean of the School of Management at the State University of New York-Buffalo.

The original plan was to hire a new Katz/CBA dean to replace Dean Emeritus H. J. Zoffer by July 1. However, delays in the search have made that unlikely, according to a spokesperson for Beverly Harris-Schenz, vice provost for Faculty Affairs and search committee chairperson.

Zoffer retired last summer after 28 years as dean of the Katz school. Andrew Blair is serving as interim dean. Blair is director of Pitt's International Business Center and a professor of business administration and economics.

UPG president The search committee for a new president of Pitt's Greensburg campus (UPG) has recommended two unranked finalists to the provost. According to committee chairperson Robert Pack, vice provost for Academic Planning and Resources Management, the committee originally planned to recommend three unranked finalists, but one candidate withdrew at the last moment.

The two remaining finalists are:

* Robert Arbuckle, president of Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

* Frank Cassell, vice provost and dean of the Albert A. Robin Campus of Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Pack said the men are scheduled to return to Pitt this month to meet with Chancellor Nordenberg and Provost Maher. An offer is expected to be made to one of the finalists by July 1, so he can begin work in the fall.

George Chambers retired Dec. 31 after 16 years as president. Norman Scanlon, vice president for academic affairs, has been interim president.

Health Sciences senior vice chancellor The search for a new senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences has officially begun.

Chancellor Nordenberg charged the search committee early this month. "I have given them no specific deadline but have indicated to them that if they could complete their work very early in the next calendar year, I think that would put us in the best possible position for recruitment and moving forward with transitions," Nordenberg said.

"In some senses, one could say that they are moving into a dead period with the summer coming," the chancellor said. "But actually, I think the summer can be a pretty important time for them to begin identifying good candidates, and hopefully attracting written submissions that can be reviewed, so that they [search committee members] can be in a position to begin meeting with candidates relatively early in the fall." H. J. Zoffer, business school dean emeritus, chairs the committee, which is looking for candidates to succeed Senior Vice Chancellor Thomas Detre.

The new search is the third since 1992, when Detre first announced plans to retire. The first search ended in summer 1993, when Pitt failed to reach an agreement with any of the four finalists. A second search (which was chaired by Nordenberg, then a Distinguished Service Professor of Law) was called off by the Board of Trustees in May 1995 following the resignation of Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor. Board leaders said that naming Detre's successor should wait until trustees appointed a new, permanent chancellor.

Detre's successor may have somewhat different job duties. In fall 1995, Nordenberg said he was considering merging the positions of Health Sciences senior vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine. The chancellor has not publicly ruled out that option.

Members of earlier search committees have criticized the senior vice chancellor job as lacking in budgetary clout and as being too subordinate to that of the president of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Asked this week how the senior vice chancellor job will be reconfigured, Nordenberg replied: "I'm really not in a position to publicly comment on that yet because there are some other groups to which I need to report. But I have given the search committee its charge and expect to make a more public statement about the position and any changes in its configuration this month." University communications director In January, Nordenberg said he hoped to appoint the new publications and media relations administrator later that month. "I suppose it's an understatement to say that the process has moved more slowly than I had expected," the chancellor said this week.

"On the other hand, I think the time since then has been well-invested in terms of talking to people about ways in which we might best structure that area to serve the University's needs. And my hope is, again, that we can bring that to conclusion in the relatively foreseeable future." Could he be more specific? "I probably shouldn't make any more predictions, should I?" Nordenberg replied, with a laugh.

The director of University communications, a newly created post, will oversee Pitt's Office of Communications (headed by Director of Communications Ken Service) and Department of University Relations (led by Mary Ann Aug, assistant vice chancellor for University Relations).

Pitt hired a New York City-based executive search firm, Heyman Associates, Inc., to recruit candidates for the new position. According to the job description, the director will report directly to the chancellor and will "develop, coordinate and direct all of the University's communications and public relations activities. This would be accomplished by creating and implementing an effective strategic communications plan that maintains a high level of quality visibility for the University."

–Bruce Steele and Mike Sajna