Chancellor job posting stresses ‘respect for shared governance’

By SUSAN JONES

The Board of Trustees encouraged the Pitt community to provide input about the search for Pitt’s 19th chancellor through surveys and forums in late September and early October.

A basic advertisement for the position first appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Sept. 23, before any of that input was received, but it has been fleshed out now after the community had its say.

The job posting reads in part: “The next Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh will be a seasoned leader with experience advancing a large and highly complex organization. They will bring with them: a strong track record of fundraising, friendraising, institutional and community development, and constituent engagement; a demonstrated ability to source, secure, and steward resources to the benefit of an institution and its community; a strong political acumen and a diplomatic savvy; an understanding of how to develop and support campus infrastructure; an ability to effectively serve, advance, and balance the management of both the health enterprise and the academic side of the University; and substantive fiscal and personnel management experience.”

It also says: “They will bring a high level of cultural competency and a demonstrated commitment to the values of equity, inclusion, and justice, as well as a foundational understanding of — and deep respect for — shared governance and faculty engagement.”

The search committee — led by Board of Trustees member and former chair Eva Tansky Blum and vice chair Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for health sciences — has moved into the quiet and confidential part of the search. It is working with the Storbek Search firm to find candidates, with the hope of naming a replacement for Chancellor Patrick Gallagher by late next spring.

At the public forums, several people voiced a preference for an academic to fill the job, but the committee said it is keeping its search as wide as possible. Shelly Storbeck, of the search firm, noted at the Oct. 3 forum that only about 18 percent of sitting university presidents come out of nontraditional roles, and she would include Gallagher in that group.

Since the early 1900s, when the Western University of Pennsylvania became the University of Pittsburgh and moved to Oakland, all of Pitt’s leaders, except Gallagher and one other, have served in academia before coming here.

Samuel McCormick, 1905-20. A Pittsburgh native who served as the third president of Coe College, a Presbyterian-affiliated institution located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before coming to Pitt.

John Bowman, 1921-45. Came to Pitt after serving three years as president of the University of Iowa, his alma mater. He also had taught at Columbia University. Bowman was the driving force behind the Cathedral of Learning, which was conceived and completed during his tenure.

Rufus H. Fitzgerald, 1945-1955. Previously held the positions of provost (1938-1942) and vice chancellor (1942-1945) at Pitt. He came to Pittsburgh after having been a director and professor of the Fine Arts Department at the State University of Iowa.

INTERIM: Charles B. Nutting, 1955-1956. Nutting became acting chancellor after serving as the School of Law dean and the University’s vice chancellor.

Edward H. Litchfield, 1956-1965. Formerly the dean of the School of Business and Public Administration at Cornell University. He oversaw the creation of the Pitt–Greensburg campus and led the purchase and construction of several key buildings on the Oakland campus, including the Schenley Hotel (now the William Pitt Union) and more dormitories. Financial problems ended Litchfield's chancellorship.

Stanton C. Crawford, 1965-1966. Led Pitt’s Johnstown Center before assuming the role of acting chancellor. He died suddenly of a heart attack seven months after taking office and received the title of chancellor posthumously.

David H. Kurtzman, 1966–1967. Came to Pitt as vice chancellor for finance in July 1965 after working for many years at the Pennsylvania Economy League. He was appointed acting chancellor after Crawford’s death. On Jan. 13, 1967, the Board of Trustees announced its selection of Wesley Posvar as Pitt’s new chancellor, effective June 1. Kurtzman, that same day, was promoted to the full rank of chancellor until the chancellor-elect was installed. Kurtzman's administration negotiated the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's bailout of Pitt's fiscal woes, through which the University became a state-related institution in 1966.

Wesley W. Posvar, 1967-1991: Posvar had a long history in academia before coming to Pitt. He first taught at West Point, from which he was a graduate, from 1952-54. In 1957, he became a professor of political science at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. From 1962 to 1964, he was a Littauer Fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration, where he earned a master of public administration degree and a Ph.D. in political science. He was chairman of the Division of Social Sciences at the Air Force Academy when he was contacted in 1966 about the position of chancellor at Pitt.

J. Dennis O’Connor, 1991-1995: A biologist, O'Connor was on the faculty at UCLA, serving as dean of the life sciences for six years and chair of the Department of Biology for two years. At the University of North Carolina, he was vice chancellor of research and graduate studies and dean of the graduate school before being appointed vice chancellor of academic affairs, and provost in 1988. He became chancellor at Pitt in 1991, following the retirement of Wesley Posvar. However, he resigned in 1995, after a series of disputes with the Board of Trustees.

Mark A. Nordenberg, 1995-2014: He was on the Pitt School of Law faculty starting in 1977 and dean from 1985-95. He now serves as chancellor emeritus and Pitt’s newest residence facility, Nordenberg Hall, was named in his honor. 

Patrick Gallagher, 2014-(projected 2023): Gallagher came to Pitt after stints, under President Barack Obama, as director of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology and as acting deputy secretary of Commerce. Gallagher has a Ph.D. in physics from Pitt and plans to transition to the faculty as a professor in Department of Physics and Astronomy next year when his replacement is found.

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

 

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