UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 23, Page 1
March 10, 1994
William & Mary prof. next provost candidate
Melvyn D. Schiavelli, Chancellor Professor of Chemistry and former
provost at the College of William and Mary, will visit the University
campus next week, as the second of three finalists for the position of
University Provost.
Schiavelli will be in Newark Wednesday and Thursday, March 16 and 17,
meeting with a wide range of University constituencies, including faculty,
staff and students.
Schiavelli, 51, has been at William and Mary since 1968, serving over
the years as provost, interim president, dean of the faculty of arts and
sciences and chairperson of the department of chemistry.
At William and Mary, he has been responsible for strengthening
graduate education, including the introduction of new doctoral programs,
establishing an endowed center for interdisciplinary curriculum
development, expanding study-abroad programs, enhancing the writing
program, introducing new international studies initiatives, improving the
admissions and advisement systems and implementing new programs to
encourage undergraduate research activity in the humanities and social
sciences.
As provost and chief academic officer there, he was responsible for an
annual budget of $136 million. In addition, he was responsible for the
creation of a faculty senate model of governance, strengthening the library
and enhancing faculty programs of summer research grants and sabbatical
leaves. As interim president, he guided a $150 million capital Campaign
for the Fourth Century.
The College of William and Mary enrolls 5,300 undergraduates and 2,000
graduate students in a full-time, primarily residential setting in
Williamsburg, Va.
Schiavelli also has been a visiting lecturer and a senior research
fellow at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and a visiting professor
at the University of Utah.
Co-author of numerous articles and chapters in scholarly journals and
books, he has received several research grants and has given many
presentations and talks at other universities in America and abroad on his
research in organic chemistry.
Schiavelli served for several years as a member of the Instructional
Programs Advisory Committee of the Council of Higher Education for Virginia
and chaired the Virginia Task Force on Career Planning and Placement for
Undergraduates.
Among his many awards are the College of William and Mary Thomas
Jefferson Award, DePaul University Distinguished Alumni Award and Phi Beta
Kappa Faculty Award for the Advancement of Scholarship.
A native of Chicago, Schiavelli holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry
from DePaul University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the
University of California at Berkeley. He also was a research associate at
Michigan State and received fellowships from the National Science
Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of
Chemistry in London and the Sigma Xi research honorary, and he is a trustee
of the Southeastern Universities Research Association.
For interested persons, Schiavelli's complete resume is on-line
through UDiscover!, is in the reserve room of the Morris Library and is
available for review in academic deans' offices.
The first finalist for provost, Anne H. Hopkins, vice president for
arts, sciences and engineering and professor of political science at the
University of Minnesota, visited the campus last week, and the third will
come the week after Schiavelli's visit.
After reviewing the finalists' visits and considering feedback from
members of the campus community, the 17-member search committee will make
its recommendation for provost to President David P. Roselle, according to
Daniel Rich, urban affairs and public policy, who serves as search
committee chairperson.
Rich encourages any members of the campus community who meet the
candidates to send their comments to the search committee or to Roselle,
preferably via e-mail.
As the University's chief academic officer, the provost reports to the
president and provides academic leadership for 10 colleges as well as
research, extension programs, graduate studies, continuing education, the
library, international programs, and several interdisciplinary research
centers and academic support units.
The position requires an ability to manage a complex academic
enterprise, the interpersonal skills to provide leadership in a diversified
University setting and the experience and commitment to facilitate
programmatic goals, including experience in sponsored programs and fund
raising. Candidates also must have a record of instructional and scholarly
accomplishments and be qualified for a senior, tenured appointment in an
academic department.
More than 175 nominations were received for the provost's position,
Rich said. Nominations were sought from the campus community, and national
advertising was placed in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Black
Issues in Higher Education. Letters requesting nominations also were sent
to presidents of institutions in the National Association of State
Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the American Association of
Universities, as well as to more than 200 academic deans across the
country.
A substantive review of the applications began in November, Rich said,
and it is hoped that the search process will be completed and the
successful applicant will assume the post of provost about July 1.
Richard B. Murray, professor of physics and astronomy, currently
serves as interim provost. He replaced R. Byron Pipes, who left the
University last spring to assume the presidency of Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, N.Y.
Members of the provost's search committee are Pamela Beeman, nursing;
John Edward Burke, Delaware Undergraduate Student Congress; John
Burmeister, chemistry and biochemistry; Maxine Colm, employee relations;
Katherine S. Conway-Turner, individual and family studies; Joan DelFattore,
English; J. Robert R. Harrison, treasurer; Saundra Jenkins, graduate
student; Edgar Johnson, intercollegiate athletics; Peter Kolchin, history;
Kenneth Lewis, economics; Kenneth Lomax, agricultural engineering; Carole
Marks, Black American Studies; Stanley Sandler, chemical engineering;
William B. Stanley, educational development; and Carolyn Thoroughgood,
marine studies.