As the day of work drew to a close on June 27 at the presidential retreat on Lake George, President Shirley Ann Jackson announced to the administrators in attendance the conclusion of a yearlong search to fill the position of provost left vacant after G.P. “Bud” Peterson accepted the job of chancellor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She named Robert E. Palazzo, who had been serving as acting provost, to the full post, effective July 1.
Jackson ultimately made the decision for Palazzo’s appointment after receiving the recommendation of the search committee, chaired by Vice President for Student Life Eddie Ade Knowles and co-chaired by Robert Linhardt, professor of biology and acting director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.
After receiving a selection of approximately 70 candidates from Isaacson Miller, the search firm working with the Institute, the committee was able to narrow the field down to seven very strong candidates, according to Linhardt; those seven were interviewed off campus at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany in an effort to avoid drawing public attention to the individuals involved. Four of those individuals advanced to a day each of intensive on-campus interviews, conducted by various subcommittees of about ten people apiece.
Each group focused on a different constituent base, including the president’s cabinet, the dean’s council, senior and junior faculty, department chairs, the Faculty Senate executive committee, and student leaders. The input garnered from these sessions enabled the main search committee to eliminate one candidate, and presented the remaining three to Jackson in an unranked fashion. Palazzo was selected from among those three finalists.
Both Knowles and Linhardt praised the committee for its ability to work together and reach a consensus at every step of the process. Both did note, however, that the timing was not ideal, citing a common wish for the results of the search to have been announced before commencement. A delayed start kept that from happening, and then commencement activities and Trustee meetings kept the committee from convening to finalize its recommendation. Linhardt noted that the committee presented its final slate of candidates just a day before Jackson announced her decision.
Knowles did emphasize, however, that while July 1 had been the target starting date for the position since the search began, the committee and Jackson would not have hesitated had more time been necessary.
The provost is the chief academic officer of the Institute, charged with maintaining and protecting some of the basic core values of the university. As such, according to Knowles, the committee focused on outstanding scholars—individuals who qualified for a full professor position. The search emphasized significant research awards and publications as well as experience in top-tier research universities.
He noted that not only did Palazzo meet all these criteria, as an internal candidate, he had managed to procure the support of the students, faculty, and administrators he has worked with since coming to RPI in 2002. This is unusual and a credit to Palazzo’s character and qualifications, Knowles pointed out, as 80 percent of the internal candidates in professional searches such as this “crash and burn,” being unable to advance to the final round of interviews. Typically, such individuals are eliminated because the search committees are much more intimately aware of possible personal flaws.
Prior to becoming acting provost last July, Palazzo served as the chair of the Department of Biology and as the acting and full director of CBIS. Before coming to RPI, he held various other roles in a number of different institutions, ranging from large public universities to a small, highly competitive research facility. He said he hopes to draw on his experience of working under a wide variety of academic conditions to bridge gaps between the students, faculty, and administration, and to “maintain a balanced sense of where everyone is coming from.”
That sentiment forms a core part of Palazzo’s goals; he indicated that he would like to “develop the appropriate mechanics for interaction” so that feedback can propagate upwards from the faculty and students up all the way to the president. Citing the administration as a “transient service entity,” he said that he didn’t “separate the faculty from the administration, quite frankly,” as everyone is working toward a common goal of academic advancement.
Along a similar vein, Palazzo also expressed a desire that all the members of the Rensselaer community understand their roles as a part of the educational institution as a whole. A key extension of this philosophy lies in making sure the advising system is an effective and indispensable part of students’ academic careers. He noted that advising is a combination of two things: giving advice that will help students on the road to graduation as well as fostering a deeper relationship that will hopefully encourage intellectual stimulation.
Other goals he stressed were to pass the $100 million mark with regard to competitive research assistance (the Institute now receives about $70 million), to fill all of the endowed chairships, and to improve equity between male and female employees of the Institute; he also expressed a desire to increase the female-male student ratio to 40 percent on campus. Palazzo also said he wanted to establish a “leadership development program,” beyond what the Archer Center provides, that would see students annually compete for (and win) major awards such as the Goldwater and Truman scholarships.
