Searching for a President
 

This is a crucial time for higher education, throughout the country and here at Penn, as we face significant challenges.  The future of the University is dependent upon the way we address these challenges.  Our response must be shaped by a strong leader.  What then are the most important qualities for which we must search in the next president.   * The president should be a respected academic.  The University is in the knowledge business and its chief executive should understand that balanced budgets are not goals in themselves and that the true success of the University is measured by advances in knowledge and the quality of education we provide for our students. * The president should have a vision of the future.  The academy is not a structure set in concrete.  It affects and is affected by changing paradigms of learning and structures of knowledge.  We are the guardians of past knowledge but at the same time we need to take imaginative steps to keep us at the forefront of knowledge. * The president should have a record of innovation.  As we face the challenges of the future we need to be led by a president who is not content to tinker at the margins.  There are serious structural problems at Penn that will require strong and innovative leadership to solve. * The president should be a skilled manager.  We are in a period of constrained resources; yet we need new resources to take the bold steps required of us.  This will require cost containment, reallocation of existing resources as well as finding imaginative new sources of revenue. * The president should be a consensus builder.  As we face the challenges of the future we need to work together toward their solution.  The president should be able to bring diverse views together to form a consensus. * The president should have a commitment to the institution.  The president's number one priority should be Penn.  We have all seen high administrators who have feared to take decisive and perhaps controversial actions for fear that those actions could interfere with their next job hunt.  We can not tolerate such an approach. It is far easier to describe what we seek than to find a person that embodies all the above qualities.  Yet we must measure each candidate against these criteria and select the most capable person.  Our future depends upon it!