University Times

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, Provost James Maher and five of the University's 14 current, permanent deans were recruited from the Pitt faculty. Should the next dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) likewise be an insider? Professors discussed that issue and others during the May 7 open hearing sponsored by the FAS dean search committee.

Committee chairperson Edward Stricker, chairperson of the neuroscience department, emphasized that the senior administration did not instruct his group to give preference to internal or external candidates.

But two FAS chairpersons who spoke at the hearing — David Birnbaum, Slavic languages and literatures, and Frank Tabakin, physics and astronomy — argued for an insider.

"All things being equal," Tabakin said, internal candidates should get the nod because FAS can't afford to hire a new dean who might take a year or more to get up to speed on the school's unique history and problems, as well as its controversial planning process.

Regardless of the new dean's current employer or academic discipline, he or she must have a proven record of scholarship, Tabakin said. "They need to prove they know what it takes to be a scholar and teacher at a major research university," he said.

Birnbaum said the planning process, together with the administrative style of FAS Dean Peter Koehler, have led to what Birnbaum called "a crisis of confidence" among a "demoralized" FAS faculty. He accused Koehler of being a poor communicator and "ignorant, even willfully ignorant" of the humanities departments and how to evaluate them.

Koehler announced last fall that he will step down as dean by summer 1998 to teach and do research in physics and astronomy, where he was appointed a tenured professor upon being hired as dean in 1986. Before coming to Pitt, Koehler had served as a researcher and administrator at the Argonne National Laboratory and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, both near Chicago. He had never been a full-time, professional academician.

"I can understand that a credible case can be made for bringing in new ideas from the outside," Birnbaum said, "but at this school at this University, we need a dean who is our colleague and who will go back to being our colleague" after a fixed term of office.

Stricker noted that the new dean will be appointed to a five-year term, with possible renewal following a mandatory performance evaluation.

In contrast to Birnbaum and Tabakin, Clark Muenzer of Germanic languages and literatures said FAS should follow the Pittsburgh Steelers' philosophy of selecting the "best athlete available" — or, in FAS's case, the best available candidate, regardless of his or her current employer.

Assuming the new dean will be granted a tenured faculty position in an FAS department, Muenzer urged the search committee to develop a process to allow faculty from that department to screen the potential dean, "not as if he's a dean, but as someone who will one day become a department colleague." Such a process, he said, would ensure that the dean's home department evaluates the new dean's scholarly and teaching credentials and values prior to hiring.

Stricker said he would be surprised if Provost Maher did not allow the new dean's departmental colleagues to screen his or her qualifications.

Marianne Novy of English said she hopes the new dean "will have some sense of the different needs of different [FAS] departments, and the danger of the humanities getting short-shrift at this University." Novy criticized a proposal, outlined in the latest draft of the FAS five-year plan, to cut the school's number of full-time, tenured and tenure stream faculty from the current 542 to 505, while hiring 25 new full-time, non-tenure stream faculty. For many years, a high percentage of English department courses have been taught by part-time faculty, she noted. "We have been trying to get permission from the administration to hire more full-time, tenured and tenure stream faculty, and we've made some progress. I'm concerned that this proposal seems to put us several steps backwards, as well as other departments several steps backwards." Stricker noted that Provost Maher has not yet commented on the FAS plan, so the proposal remains just that.

Thomas Metzger, mathematics and statistics, urged the committee to seek candidates with a pro-active vision for incorporating computer technology into the entire FAS curriculum, not just in science courses.

Stricker suggested creating computer-oriented "C" courses comparable to FAS's "W" courses that require students to study writing regardless of their majors.

Muenzer of Germanic languages and literatures argued for a dean who will be a strong advocate for the liberal arts and resist what Muenzer called the current trend toward "unreflective vocationalism." Muenzer said a Pitt placement official recently stated that students' internships are more important than their grade averages. "I believe this is a mistake," Muenzer said.

The average college graduate will change careers and sub-specialties several times during his or her career, Muenzer added. Teaching students how to learn, not equipping them with vocational skills, should be Pitt's chief goal, he argued.

Humanities faculty dominated last week's search committee hearing, if "dominated" is an appropriate verb for describing a two-hour session that attracted just seven of FAS's 500-plus full-time, tenured and tenure stream faculty (not counting committee members). Five of the seven were from FAS humanities departments.

The turnout was typical for a Pitt dean search hearing, as Stricker pointed out. "We didn't expect a mob of people," he said. "There rarely is for these things." Stricker noted: "Attendance was not critical." Faculty, staff and students who wish to nominate candidates or share thoughts on qualities the committee should seek in a new dean may do so by writing to Stricker at 479 Crawford Hall or by sending e-mail to the following address: stricker@bns.pitt.edu The committee plans to hold a second hearing on Sept. 5.

Stricker said the committee welcomes one-sentence nominations as well as detailed nominations, complete with candidates' specific qualifications. "We prefer hearing some rationale for why a particular candidate would make a good dean, just for the committee's own education," Stricker said. "But we'll also welcome a two-word e-mail message. We'll just take the name and run with it." Committee members will protect the confidentiality of messages from, and conversations with, people making nominations — just as committee discussions with candidates will remain confidential, Stricker said. The committee will not release candidates' names prior to bringing finalists to Pitt for interviews, he said.

Provost Maher has asked the search committee to recommend three-to-five finalists by Feb. 1, 1998, although Stricker said the committee hopes to finish the job by the end of 1997.

According to Stricker, the search committee will do thorough background checks on leading candidates, including talking with candidates' former and current faculty colleagues. "But in the end, there are never any guarantees," he said. "The best any search committee can do is make its best guess [in recommending candidates]– an educated guess, but still a guess."

— Bruce Steele