Sixteen months, four days and one extremely lengthy search process after former Dean Norma Lang announced her resignation, the Nursing School finally has a new leader in place.
The appointment of Afaf Meleis as the Nursing School's dean ends a long and extensive search process, and should be received with a due level of celebration from all members of the University community.
Meleis has, after all, developed an extremely strong reputation through her work at the University of California-San Francisco. Her research and advocacy have earned her tremendous praise, and that prestige will undoubtedly follow her to Philadelphia -- where she will be catapulted from the role of professor to the top spot of one of the world's best academic care centers.
But Meleis' appointment -- while good for the the future development of the school -- also ends yet another frustrating and unreasonably long executive search. Like recent processes involving the provost and deans of the Medical School, Law School, Wharton School and Engineering School, Meleis' appointment came after well over a year of deliberation -- a period of time far greater than typical for comparable institutions.
Several factors concern us about this trend and its most recent application. Here at Penn, dean searches now regularly lapse into fifteenth and sixteenth months -- a period of uncertainty that can easily compromise a school's stability and academic progress.
By comparison, the 1993 search that yielded University President Judith Rodin lasted seven months. And recent presidential searches at Brown and New York universities both took under a year.
What's more, the extraordinary time frame involved in this case is especially questionable, considering the relatively small scale of the academic nursing world and the smaller pool of candidates from which Meleis was ultimately selected.
Now that this most recent search has come to an end, it is time for this University to once and for all launch an intensive review of its academic search procedures and priorities. Thoroughness, of course, is of paramount importance. And by all indications, Meleis is indeed a fine selection and will serve the University well.
But 16 months? It's just too long.
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