Provost Vincent Price will become President of Duke University

Provost Vincent Price will be leaving Penn to become President of Duke University, Penn President Amy Gutmann announced in an email on Friday morning.

Price has been provost since 2009, but has been at the University since 1998. He has previously held roles as Interim Provost, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Chair of the Faculty Senate and Associate Dean of the Annenberg School. He is also the Steven H. Chaffee Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School for Communication and a professor of political science.

In her email, Gutmann called his departure, which is scheduled for July 1, “bittersweet news.”

“No one is better prepared or more deserving than Vince to lead a distinguished university such as Duke. We are proud and extremely happy for him...even if our happiness is tinged with the sadness of our cherished colleague and friend departing from Penn,” Gutmann wrote.

Price was unanimously selected on Friday to succeed Duke’s current president, Richard H. Brodhead, after an international search led by a 19-member committee comprised of administrators, trustees, faculty, students and alumni.

“I could not be more pleased with this decision, for Vince Price has demonstrated throughout his distinguished academic career the type of strong, effective and enlightened leadership which will ensure that Duke has a worthy successor to Dick Brodhead,” David Rubenstein, chair of the Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

Duke, located in Durham, N.C., is smaller than Penn, with an undergraduate enrollment of 6,485 to Penn’s 10,406. There are also fewer graduate students, but like Penn, Duke has a law school, business school and medical school. The competitiveness of its undergraduate schools rivals Penn, with 32,111 applicants for the class of 2020 and an 11 percent acceptance rate.

“I am deeply honored to be a part of this most dynamic university, and I look forward to working with our faculty, students, staff, alumni and many friends around the world,” Price said in a statement released on Duke’s website.

Price earned his B.A. in English from the University Honors Program at Santa Clara University, and his Ph.D and M.A.A. in Communication from Stanford University.

“He is a leading global expert on public opinion, social influence, and political communication,” his biography on the Office of the Provost webpage reads. “Public Opinion,” a book Price wrote on the subject in 1992, has been published in six languages and is taught in courses around the world.

Price came to Penn from the University of Michigan, where he was Chair and Associate Professor of Communication Studies and a faculty associate of the Center for Political Studies.

Gutmann wrote that while at Penn, Price has “helped recruit exceptional deans and faculty members while advancing initiatives to diversify the faculty, develop new forms of teaching and learning, expand Penn’s global engagement (including our new Penn Wharton China Center and Perry World House), and enhance arts and culture on campus.”

She also noted that an Ad Hoc committee of faculty and students will be formed to select Penn’s next provost, and that the selection will be made prior to Price’s departure on July 1.

Price, joined by his wife Annette, will be introduced at Duke during an event in Penn Pavilion on Duke’s West Campus today at 2 p.m.