Gee's first year marked by major reorganization

July 31 marks the completion of Gordon Gee's first year as Chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Regardless who the successful candidate was to be, the then-forthcoming transition promised to trigger excitement as well as anxiety across campus. The fact that the University's seventh leader was a powder keg of unbridled energy with big ideas and a history of prompting sweeping reorganizations translated into a dynamic year of change for the faculty, students and staff he now leads.

Photo by Peyton Hoge

After being named the University's seventh Chancellor Feb. 7, 2000, Gordon Gee met with several groups of students during a tour of the campus.

When he was introduced as successor to Joe B. Wyatt to the University community -- and to more than 10,000 people live via the Internet -- E. Gordon Gee was a man leaving the presidency of the country's seventh oldest University after barely two years on the job.

"The decision to leave Brown was one of the most difficult Constance and I ever made," Gee said at a press conference Feb. 7, 2000. "I come to Vanderbilt, however, confident in the knowledge that my work at Brown will help make it a better university."

The seemingly tireless Gee visited campus regularly during the waning months of Wyatt's term. By May, he and his staff occupied temporary office space on the second floor of Sarratt Student Center. After scores of formal and informal meetings with faculty, staff and students, he began to prepare campus for his administration. By late May, the Chancellor-elect announced a significant realignment of senior executives and functions that affected nearly every aspect of the administration of University Central.

"I have had an unparalleled chance to take a helicopter view of Vanderbilt, talking to hundreds of faculty, students, alumni, members of the Board of Trust and friends, and reviewing the mission and the organization of the University," said Gee. "I have learned what works, and what can work better. This administrative structure will take advantage of our strengths and allow us to focus on our first priority: furthering the academic mission of the University."

The Division of Media Relations became the Division of Public Affairs, which is responsible for the communications and public relations activities as well as federal, state and local government relations, creative services, Television News Archive and licensing.

The offices of Traffic and Parking, Police and Security, and Vanderbilt Real Estate were reassigned to the Division of Administration, and Lauren Brisky's title of vice chancellor for administration was amended to include chief financial officer. She was delegated oversight responsibility for finances in University Central and the Medical Center.

University Treasurer William T. Spitz was appointed to the new position of vice chancellor for investments and treasurer, which supervises the offices of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. The latter was a new venture capital fund that develops and invests in ideas generated by Vanderbilt faculty.

William Stead was named assistant to the Chancellor for informatics and chief information architect, a new senior position charged with overseeing a restructuring of the University's information technology units to better address academic and administrative needs. Stead continues to serve as associate vice chancellor for health affairs and director of the informatics center at the Medical Center.

Gee also formed the "Chancellor's Council," a group of senior academic, administrative, faculty and student leaders who meet several times each semester.

Within weeks, he appointed David Williams II, a former colleague from Gee's days as president of Ohio State University, to serve as vice chancellor, general counsel and secretary of Vanderbilt University.

With the announcement of the initial restructuring behind him, Gee participated in the Strategic Academic Planning Workshop, a pivotal, high-level brainstorming session that marked his first time to work closely with those who would soon be his faculty and staff.

"I come from a place that is not as good as it thinks it is, to a place that is better than it knows it is," Gee said at the daylong meeting. "The opportunity for national and global leadership at Vanderbilt has never been greater."

Two weeks later, with little fanfare and no ceremony, he was installed as Chancellor and began to further reinvent the agenda for Vanderbilt University.

"If Vanderbilt is going to engage in leadership at a global level, which is the role of great institutions, we have to have a student body and a faculty which represents that," he said.

In addition to calling for increased cultural diversity on campus, he encouraged vigorous debate from his faculty and staff on a variety of subjects.

"I want you to feel able to debate me, and to disagree with me," he said in his first address to the Faculty Assembly. "I give you permission to do that. I encourage you to do it, and I expect you to do it. And after that dissent, I expect us to work together on a common course of action."

With that, he set forth five challenges to the faculty: 1) renew the University's commitment to the undergraduate experience; 2) reinvent graduate education at Vanderbilt; 3) reintegrate professional education with the intellectual life of the University; 4) reexamine and restructure economic models; and 5) renew Vanderbilt's covenant with the community.

Seven months later Gee called an unprecedented second Faculty Assembly at which he challenged his colleagues to consider five proposals as jumping-off points for future dialogue: 1) structure programs around specific problems; 2) reward faculty for innovations regarding technology use in the classroom; 3) reconsider the way in which faculty is recruited; 4) gauge achievements beyond traditional standardization methods; and 5) seek out several "stretch-and-reach" appointments each year to recruit over the next three to five years.

"The University was made for humans, not humans for the University," he told the faculty. "We do not serve it. We are entitled to adapt it to our needs. It should be organized to reflect our values."

Other initiatives were designed to encourage cross-disciplinary interaction among faculty members. After meeting with deans and professors of each school in what he called "Faculty Forums," the need to provide the opportunity for faculty from different schools to interact became apparent. This led to the creation of "Salon V," an after-work social occasion held several times during the school year to facilitate unstructured conversation amongst colleagues from across campus.

Committees formed over the past year have led to the pursuit of a "master plan" for the campus resources over the next 15 to 20 years, and a taskforce to investigate whether or not workers in sweatshop conditions are employed in creating licensed merchandise bearing the University's logos, trademarks and insignia. Commencement exercises are under review, and the University has contracted a world-renowned graphic artist to consider and possibly reinvent Vanderbilt's visual identity. Another committee is considering staff education benefits.

By March, the division formerly known as Alumni and Development -- the University's fund-raising/friend-raising branch -- was reinvented as the Division of Institutional Planning and Advancement. Nicholas Zeppos, the vice chancellor for the new division, was charged with linking the University's advancement efforts more closely to its academic mission. This transition took place as the University positioned itself to enter the next stage of its capital campaign, which has a "test goal" of $1 billion.

Gee also announced in March the search to fill a new executive position, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life. A committee has been formed and a national search is reportedly under way. Other major initiatives include conducting a national search to fill the deanship of the Graduate School.

In May, the Chancellor presided over his first Vanderbilt Commencement, exhorting the crowd of 17,000 graduates, parents and guests to "imagine the fullest potential of every moment of that life, its fullest potential as an opportunity for scholarship, for service, for art, for justice, for compassion, for celebration."

Chancellor Gee will answer questions submitted by readers in the Aug. 13, 2001 issue of the Vanderbilt Register.