University Provost Peter Lennie will step down from the position of Provost in June 2016, according to an announcement from the Office of the President. Lennie will remain with the University as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences and Engineering until June 2017 at the request of University President Joel Seligman.
Lennie has been with the University since 2006, when he was hired as Dean of Faculty. In 2012, he assumed the title of Provost. As Provost, Lennie has overseen academic programs and University IT, as well as provided leadership to various UR departments.
In the press release, Seligman enumerated several highlights of Lennie’s career, saying that undergraduate applications have increased and that acceptance rates for minority and international students have risen.
“Peter has substantially strengthened Arts, Sciences & Engineering,” Seligman wrote, “which has fewer resources than our peers and aspirational peers, by adding more than 60 new faculty, including 12 new faculty last academic year, to bring our current AS&E faculty to 362.”
Speaking on his decision to resign, Lennie said, “Ten years is a good run, and an appropriate time to hand [the position] over to someone new.”
It would be difficult to replace both the University’s Provost and the Dean of Faculty at the same time, so Lennie acquiesced to remain with UR as Dean of Faculty for one additional term.
Lennie noted that while he had originally wanted to resign from both positions, Seligman requested that he stay on as Dean of Faculty “to help ease the transition.”
Seligman said that he will announce within the next few weeks how he plans to select Lennie’s successor.
“There’s a lot of work to do,” Lennie said. “In research and scholarship, our Data Science initiative is off to a great start, but there is much more to do; our Humanities Center has just been launched, and we need to invest in that.”
“We are in the middle of a major review of the curriculum,” he continued, “and the outcome of that will help us strengthen our undergraduate programs.”
He also mentioned upcoming renovations to the Frederick Douglass Building and Fauver Stadium, as well as the construction of Wegman’s Hall.
After Lennie resigns as Dean in 2017, he will go on leave.
“I’m looking forward to catching up on the things I’ve missed,” he said.
Passanisi is a member of the class of 2017.
