After months of uncertainty, Penn names new deans of SAS, College

Sociology Professor Samuel Preston will be the next dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. and Margie Fishman Sociology Professor and University Council moderator Samuel Preston was named School of Arts and Sciences dean December 15, replacing Interim Dean Walter Wales. Preston will begin his new job today. Preston's appointment removes the second question mark that had hung over the debt-ridden SAS for months, as Wales and former College Dean Robert Rescorla had both indicated their desire to leave their posts and return to the classroom. The recent resignation of Provost Stanley Chodorow, Penn's top academic officer, had raised further concerns about the future of many of the SAS's academic initiatives. But University officials moved quickly last month to fill the three posts. History Professor Richard Beeman was named as Rescorla's replacement the same day that Preston's selection as the next dean of SAS was announced, while Deputy Provost Michael Wachter was appointed as interim provost earlier in the week. A search committee will seek a permanent replacement for Chodorow. Preston had declined an offer to serve as SAS dean during the last dean search in 1990-91, which resulted in the appointment of former Dean Rosemary Stevens, according to Search Committee Chairperson Douglas Massey, who also serves as the chairperson of the Sociology Department. Preston also initially declined to interview with the committee this time, Massey added. Preston said he was initially wary of filling an administrator's shoes. After building momentum in research and teaching, "it is difficult to change," he explained. About a month ago, however, the search committee -- unsatisfied with the candidate list it had produced --approached some University professors for a second time. This time around, Preston agreed to take the job. "I've been doing the same thing for 30 years," Preston said in explaining his change of heart. "I felt like I was getting a little stale." Preston will go to work this semester as a permanent replacement for Wales, a Physics professor who had accepted the post three semesters ago following the resignation of then-Dean Rosemary Stevens. Preston said he is "excited" to begin his new position and praised Wales for developing a "clear and sensible blueprint" for the school. Preston came to Penn in 1979 and has also served as chairperson of the Faculty Senate, as well as two terms as chairperson of the Sociology Department. He specializes in population studies. Preston said his main goal will be ensuring that SAS programs and courses remain among the world's best, an effort which he said will require major fundraising to overcome the school's current fiscal problems. SAS is projected to end the 1997 fiscal year with a one million dollar budget deficit. Vowing to raise endowment for undergraduate scholarship, Preston noted that the current SAS endowment covers only nine percent of undergraduate financial aid -- a percentage less than half of that of the endowment-scholarship ratios of Penn's Ivy League peers. He added that one of his first projects will be to examine the "sub-par" facilities of the Biology department, in addition to strengthening the Political Science department by securing first-rate faculty. An advocate for the University's responsibility-center budgeting system, Preston highlighted plans to allow larger departments more control over departmental budgets. "As a former department chair, I could see ways of reallocating those funds that would have provided better educational programs and research opportunities," he said. Massey praised Preston as an outstanding leader "not only in Sociology but throughout the University," adding that he will be a "magnificent dean" and "is well-placed to lead SAS into the next century." But Massey stressed that he has "mixed feelings" about the loss of a popular professor he described as an "important figure within the department and the University's nationally-ranked demography program." "This is an immediate loss for the department, but one that will benefit the University as a whole," he said.

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