Search for the Academic VP

What Does the Future Hold?

What do you do when a supposedly vital and influential corporate position becomes suddenly vacant, leaving no apparent successor or deputy to inherit the throne and its duties and responsibilities?

This is the urgent question facing Yeshiva University following the resignation of Dr. William Schwartz, Vice-President for Academic Affairs. After Schwartz announced his imminent departure last month, the Office of the President and the Board of Trustees have begun to take steps to find suitable candidates to fill the all-important office on the twelfth floor of Belfer Hall.

Schwartz resigned after serving nearly five years in the position of Academic VP, a position here at YU that is the equivilant office to that of the Provost at other major American universities. A Provost is traditionally one of the most powerful and influential men in a university hierarchy, usually second to only the president of the institution himself. And while the Academic VP at YU may not wield the clout of an Ivy League Provost, he certainly holds a powerful post, with the ability to impact almost every segment of the University’s numerous schools and divisions.

Schwartz’s duties and responsibilities included overseeing all matters pertaining to faculty and academic curriculums. He was in charge of the hiring and firing of all faculty and deans, and any decision involving tenure or salary increases. During his tenure, deans were hired for Yeshiva College and Cardozo Law School, and overall salaries were increased across the board. Schwartz instituted popular academic innovations such as the visiting author lecture series and the CEO lecture program given to Sy Syms seniors. He stressed interdisciplinary study, and oversaw changes in the traditional YU academic requirements, such as cutting the mandatory bible requirement from six classes to four, and setting a cap on outside and Israel credits.

"Academic excellence is a voyage, not a harbor," went Schwartz’s well-worn and often-used adage to describe his attempts and efforts at YU. And after captaining the ship of YU’s academics for five years, Schwartz decided that other oceans and voyages beckoned him, and he tendered his resignation to President Lamm, effective at the end of the academic year.

In a speech to the Executive Council of the University, President Lamm thanked Dr. Schwartz for his contributions to YU, and announced that executive search ("headhunting") firms had been retained by YU to begin the process of finding a suitable replacement to Schwartz. He also said that if a successor was not found by the end of the school year, an acting Academic VP would be have to be appointed from within the University. Lamm stated that this could either be a solitary dean who would fulfill the duties of the office, or a committee of deans could be appointed to split the responsibilities between themselves.

Sources in the administration have confirmed that multiple headhunting firms have been retained by the University, but a comprehensive search of the type needed to fill such a prestigious post inevitably takes time. It is almost a given, that barring a miraculous appearance of an appropriate person to ascend to the position, a successor will not have been found by the summer and an acting, or a group of acting VP’s must take command.

The are logical candidates from within the ranks of the undergraduate deans to assume acting duties. Harold Neirenberg, the dean of Sy Syms, has already served a tour as acting Academic VP, after the resignation of former VP Egon Brenner. Norman Adler, Dean of Yeshiva College, was provost at Northeastern University and has administrative experience at the upper levels of university academics. And since the Office of Academic Affairs oversees the graduate schools as well, their deans can not be discounted, and must be included for consideration as well.

Who will make the decisions concerning the entire process? Who will decide which candidates to screen, interview, and ultimately, hire?

The final decision on all matters is the president’s. Lamm will decide whom to hire, and will present him to the Board of Trustees for their approval. But before that final step, a committee must be formed representing the disparate and diverse segments of the University, in order for everyone, students included, to have their say and advise the president. The decision on the exact composition and size of the committee is due to be announced by the Office of the President, but the Commentator has been informed that the committee will contain undergraduate students.

The questions are however, how large will the committee be, and what role will the students play in its deliberations? The last committee formed of this nature was to hire a new dean for Cardozo Law School, which eventually chose Dean Paul Verkiul. The committee was composed of thirty-six people, and had one student sitting on it, the president of the student bar association. While being a large group, that committee was formed merely to find a dean for one of YU’s sixteen academic divisions. The committee to choose an academic overseer for all of Yeshiva University, must, by sheer necessity of numbers, be considerably larger. It must have representation from all of the University’s schools, graduate, undergraduate, and high schools. There has to be faculty representation, administrative representation, Board of Trustees representation, and the Office of Finance will have an extremely large say as well.

With a group so large, the process promises to be an unwieldy and divisive one. Which students will be chosen to sit on the committee, has yet to be decided, and needs to be addressed by the president’s office. Will they come from the student councils, or will they be chosen by the dean’s office? Will they come solely from the undergraduate schools, or will graduate students also be represented? These, and other matters remain unclear.

And what duties will the students have on the committee? On the Cardozo committee, the lone student was involved in every step of the process, from deciding which candidates to interview, to the actual interviewing and recommendations. However, on a committee of large size, it is almost impossible to have everyone doing everything. If students are relegated to merely interviewing the potential candidates selected by others, their power is reduced greatly, and they become a de facto rubber stamp to choices made previously by others. In order for students to truly have a say in the process, they must be involved in every step of the committee’s deliberations. Will the administration and the president give students such broad purview over the selection of the next academic VP? It remains to be seen.