Syracuse University hopes to have a permanent vice chancellor and provost in place by early 2016, the search committee announced Monday at an open forum.

About 20 members of the Syracuse University community attended the forum in Hendricks Chapel to provide input on what qualifications the new vice chancellor and provost at the university should have.

The forum, which was hosted by the Vice Chancellor and Provost Search Committee, was led by committee chair, Charles Driscoll, a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Five other members of the search committee joined him.

Driscoll presented a tentative timeline for the appointment of a permanent vice chancellor and provost. The committee hopes to name someone to the position by the winter of 2016, but will take more time if necessary, Driscoll said.

“We don’t want to be held to the timeline. We want to do a good job,” Driscoll said. “But I’m not going to compromise, and I think the committee would agree with me that we want to get the right person. We don’t want to do this twice, and if that takes a little bit longer then so be it.”

Rebecca Bostwick, program director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, said during the open comment period of the forum that the new vice chancellor and provost should have a progressive research portfolio.

“I’d like to see someone who’s had externally funded research as a faculty member,” Bostwick said. “I’d like to see someone who’s had experience as chair of a department and supporting other faculty in their research and if at all possible, someone who has been a dean and understands the challenges of research from that perspective.”

The other faculty members at the forum reiterated Bostwick’s point and called for the new vice chancellor and provost to emphasize research.

“We need to increase the academic research infrastructure. It’s not feasible to improve our research unless we have increases in all sorts of our research infrastructure,” said Warren Scott, interim associate dean for research and scholarship.

Liz Liddy, the former dean of the School of Information Studies, is currently interim vice chancellor and provost. She was appointed to the position by Chancellor Kent Syverud in January 2015.

Eric Spina previously held the position for eight years. He stepped down in December 2014 and was recently appointed president of Dayton University.

Another open forum will be held on Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. in Hendricks.

Published on September 21, 2015 at 11:16 pm

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