Editorial | In good hands

Let the search begin.

Early this week, President Amy Gutmann announced that Engineering Dean Eduardo Glandt will lead the committee charged with finding a new dean for the Wharton School.

Current Wharton Dean Patrick Harker will leave Penn at the end of this school year to take on the presidency at the University of Delaware.

The search committee - comprised of Wharton faculty, students, alumni and other members of the University - has no small task in choosing a replacement for Harker, who was not only well-liked by his students, faculty and staff, but who also distinguished himself across campus as a faculty member in the Engineering school.

In keeping with Harker's focus on integrating Wharton with the rest of the University, Glandt is a smart choice.

As a non-Whartonite and respected member of the Penn community, Glandt will be able to see the bigger picture, as far as a candidate's ability to not only succeed within Wharton, but within Penn as a whole as well.

Wharton is often accused of separating itself too much from the rest of the University, and, with Gutmann's emphasis on interdisciplinary education, its next dean should make better integration a priority. While its unfair to assume that outsiders wouldn't be able to accomplish this, it didn't hurt that Harker received all four of his degrees from the University.

An international perspective is also key as Wharton continues to expand its borders throughout the world. Glandt has made global outreach a priority for the Engineering school, and will be able to transfer his expertise in this respect to the search process.

But Glandt's most important task will be to make sure that the voices of all members of the search committee are heard. Students, staff and faculty all have an equally vested interest in the success of their next dean.

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