Empowering the Provost
 

The Provost shall be the educational officer normally responsible for the conduct, coordination and quality of the University's academic programs and for their future development.  In the performance of these duties the Provost shall consult with representatives of the faculty. Handbook for Faculty and Administrators - page 4 Since there is currently a search underway for Provost of the University, this is an appropriate time to review the role of the Provost at Penn.  The title, Provost, is little used or understood outside the academy.  In a University with two Executive Vice Presidents and five Vice Presidents there has been some concern that the role of the Provost as Chief Academic Officer of the University might not be understood.  That concern should be dispelled by the description of the Provost in the Handbook (quoted above).  The question I address here is whether the Office of Provost, as currently constituted, is appropriately configured and empowered to discharge the responsibilities described above.  The Provost should spend most of his or her time working to improve the academic programs of the University.  To achieve this goal the Provost must be a good judge of academic quality, must work with the Deans and the faculty to maintain and improve the quality of instruction and scholarship at the University, and must have sufficient resources to initiate and support programs.  To this end the Provost should be involved in  * recruiting the very best scholars and students to the University.  * setting priorities for development in support of academic excellence. * initiating and nurturing programs that promote academic excellence and transcend the individual schools. * reviewing the academic programs within the schools. * working on the national level, individually and with our peer institutions, in creating an atmosphere under which research and instruction can flourish.  There are two major issues. * Does the current scope of the Provost's direct responsibilities allow the Provost to have sufficient time to focus on the above issues? and * Does the Provost have sufficient resources to act forcefully on the above issues? Currently the Provost spends a great amount of time on issues that relate to undergraduate life (JIO, the Revlon Center, DP seizures).  These issues wind up on the Provost's desk since the Provost has responsibility for all of undergraduate education and life.  These are important issues and must be handled by a major university administrator but not necessarily the Provost.   We should explore alternatives that would relieve the Provost of primary responsibility for these issues.  The power of the provost to plan for future development, facilitate cooperation among and between schools, and recruit the best scholars is dependent upon the resources that are available for his or her use.  In the federalism that has developed at Penn the individual schools retain 80% of tuition income, 72% of indirect costs, and all of the external funding they can raise.  This allocation of resources leaves the Provost with little discretionary funds after the budgets of the individual schools have been balanced and inhibits a Provost from taking the leadership role required to fulfill the responsibilities described above.  Especially in these days of very scarce resources the Provost must have a sufficiently large contingency fund  that will allow him or her to support existing initiatives as well as to fund new activities.  To increase the contingency fund there are only two alternatives.  We can either make the pie bigger or cut it differently.  We probably need to do both; namely, to increase development efforts aimed at providing discretionary funds for the Provost and to reallocate some funds from the Schools to the central administration.  This will entail sacrifice on the part of the individual deans but will benefit the University as a whole.  At one time Penn had a very strong central administration.  Following the introduction of responsibility based budgeting the power became more decentralized.  The University has suffered from the lack of ability to plan and act centrally.  It is time to restore some power to the central administration.  The Provost is the Chief Academic Officer of the University.  We should move quickly to ensure that the Provost has the resources and the time required to focus more on "the conduct, coordination and quality of the University's academic programs and (on) their future development."