UCLA paper: Chodorow interviews for top job

The UCLA Daily Bruin reports today that Penn Provost Stanley Chodorow is one of four finalists for UCLA chancellorship. Provost Stanley Chodorow interviewed with University of California officials yesterday as one of four finalists for the vacant chancellorship of the school's Los Angeles campus, the UCLA Daily Bruin reports today. Sources on the chancellor search committee told the Bruin that Chodorow, Harvard University Provost Albert Carnesale, UCLA Medical School Dean Gerald Levey and UCLA Law School Dean Susan Prager had interviewed with the committee and University of California President Richard Atkinson in Atkinson's office in Oakland, Calif., yesterday. Chodorow was registered at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, Calif., yesterday, but a hotel clerk told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the provost checked out around 3 p.m. Pacific time. The provost had told his History 211 class -- which meets Mondays -- that he would be away this week for a fundraising trip, and that he would return Friday. Penn administrators said they knew little about Chodorow's whereabouts yesterday. But they said that is not unusual. Vice President for Development Virginia Clark said she didn't know whether Chodorow had planned a trip to the West Coast. But she said he has his own fundraising contacts in California and frequently goes there without alerting her office, which supervises University-wide fundraising efforts. Deputy Provost Michael Wachter said he had not seen Chodorow in their College Hall office yesterday, but added that the provost "travels a lot" and that he expected Chodorow back this week. A spokesperson for Atkinson could not confirm that any interviews took place yesterday. "For anybody to say that the search has been narrowed down to a certain number of candidates is totally inaccurate," said Terry Colvin, the spokesperson. If candidates were interviewed yesterday, it wouldn't necessarily mean anything to the search process, he added. The search committee only advises Atkinson on who to present to the system's Board of Regents as his pick for the UCLA chancellorship. The final choice is Atkinson's alone, Colvin explained. "The president is free to interview candidates, not to interview candidates or to select somebody that wasn't interviewed," he said. Chodorow and Atkinson worked together in the administration at UC-San Diego for years, however, and Colvin said the two still keep in close contact. Today's report in the Bruin is the latest in a series of California newspaper stories speculating on the selection process for the UCLA post. Two weeks ago, The Sacramento Bee published a list of six finalists for the UCLA position, also based on background information from search committee members, that included Chodorow, UCLA's Prager and Harvard's Carnesale. Chodorow said then that he hadn't applied for the job, adding that he would not comment on "rumors about who is a candidate for what." And later that week, the Bruin reported a list of four candidates based on documents provided by a search committee member. That list included Prager and Carnesale, but not Levey or Chodorow. By most indications, Carnesale was also in California yesterday. Harvard Crimson Managing Editor Valerie MacMillan said Carnesale could not be reached at home last night, and that he had cleared his calendar of appointments and events for yesterday. Chodorow had been one of four finalists in contention for the presidency at the University of Michigan in November, but the school's Board of Regents unanimously voted to offer the job to then-Dartmouth Provost Lee Bollinger after an eight-month search process. Chodorow said in November that he had not been "out there looking for a job," and in fact had turned down several offers from other schools. At UCSD, Chodorow served as assistant vice chancellor for academic planning -- under Atkinson -- and was dean of arts and humanities for 11 years. There, he oversaw 15 departments and a total of 200 faculty members, and he is widely credited with helping the university deal with severe cutbacks in state budget aid. Some Penn administrators said they would not be surprised if the UCLA search committee was considering Chodorow because of Penn's prestige, the reputation he earned from his work at UCSD and his friendship with Atkinson.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.