April 30, 2008

Tennessee Provost Is Chosen to Lead U. of Massachusetts at Amherst

Robert C. Holub, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has been selected to become the next chancellor of the University of Massachusetts’ flagship campus at Amherst.

UMass’s president, Jack M. Wilson, selected Mr. Holub from among four finalists, the university announced today. The system’s Board of Trustees will consider the recommendation at a special meeting on Monday. Mr. Holub would replace John V. Lombardi, who left Amherst last summer amid controversial plans to shake up the top management of the five-campus Massachusetts system. Mr. Lombardi is now president of the Louisiana State University system.

Mr. Holub, who came to Tennessee in 2006, had previously served in several positions at the University of California at Berkeley, including dean of the undergraduate division of the College of Letters and Science.

He told the Associated Press he was “very honored” by the Massachusetts appointment and was keeping an open mind about the past year’s tensions between the Amherst campus and the system administration, in Boston. “It’s really hard for me to judge the situation from so far away, and I am going to see what the lay of the land is first and find out everybody’s feelings,” he said. “But I do know that you don’t move a university forward by yourself. You have to have everyone on board.” —Charles Huckabee

Comments

1. Holub left Tennessee when he should have been chancellor of it Knoxville campus. A nationally known educator Loren Crabtree was forced out this year after the system president John Petersen tried to cut the campus in half with the Chancellor running one half and Petersen the other and Crabtree quit. Petersen has the men’s athletic program reporting to him and the women’s program reporting to the campus Chancellor. The same with research half and half with agriculture research reporting directly into Petersen and now a new research park on UTK campus reporting to Petersen. Holub got the message when Petersen did not pick him as acting Chancellor even though he is the second rankiing administrator on the Knoxville campus so he left.
   The UTK faculty is still lurking and waiting for retirement while the best young faculty flee in droves.
   U. Mass is very lucky and Ut is still sinking…so sad.

   — fred smith    May 1, 08:55 AM    #

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