New Brunswick now has a chancellor

[retired711]

Richard Edwards has been combining being the acting vice president for academic affairs and acting chancellor at New Brunswick. He will now only have the later role. In other words, the VP for academic affairs will no longer be occupied with day-to-day issues at New Brunswick, but will instead be free to focus on university-wide matters (like chairing the PRC, which passes on tenure and promotion matters). Other state systems (The University of California is an example) went through similar transitions -- the President of UC used to be the chief officer of the Berkeley campus.

The change is a reversal of a change that was made under Fran Lawrence, who never understood why he shouldn't be running the NB campus. Previous to that, there was a separate provost for NB. So this is not as revolutionary a change as it may seem. But it is worth noting, or at least I think it is.

 

[Upstream]

I thought that Edwards was announced as Chancellor months ago (and as you note, he has been Acting Chancellor for some time).

But I agree (and have argued for some time) that it makes no sense for the University-wide administration to be burdened with day-to-day issues at Rutgers-New Brunswick. I think that was also the cause of a lot of the conflict between campuses, as administrators in Newark and Camden were never sure if their bosses were making decisions based on their University-wide role, or their New Brunswick role. With a full-time Chancellor for each campus, the delineation between university-wide and campus-specific becomes much clearer.

 

[retired711]

He's been chancellor but also acting Vice President for Academic Affairs, so he's been wearing two hats, campus-wide and university-wide. Now he's only wearing only the chancellor hat, which completes the separation. Upstream, I completely agree with what you say.

 

[e5fdny]

Originally posted by camdenlawprof:
Richard Edwards has been combining being the acting vice president for academic affairs and acting chancellor at New Brunswick. He will now only have the later role. In other words, the VP for academic affairs will no longer be occupied with day-to-day issues at New Brunswick, but will instead be free to focus on university-wide matters (like chairing the PRC, which passes on tenure and promotion matters). Other state systems (The University of California is an example) went through similar transitions -- the President of UC used to be the chief officer of the Berkeley campus.

The change is a reversal of a change that was made under Fran Lawrence, who never understood why he shouldn't be running the NB campus. Previous to that, there was a separate provost for NB. So this is not as revolutionary a change as it may seem. But it is worth noting, or at least I think it is.

I always go back to the UC as a comparison, and maybe that's not the right way to do it, but I appreciate you giving me this example.

This is a good thing, correct? Or should I say the right way to do it?

 

[retired711]

I understand there is debate about the extent to which Rutgers should follow the UC model. For instance, UC decides tenure matters on a campus-by-campus basis. I understand Newark would like its own PRC, but the central administration has stoutly -- and I think, soundly --- resisted. What makes Camden and Newark part of Rutgers is that their faculties have to meet the same tenure standards administered by the same people -- as New Brunswick faculty.