For Penn President: Princeton Provost Amy Gutmann

Click here for a transcription of the Press Conference.

Dr. Amy Gutmann, Princeton's Provost, has been nominated to  be Penn's 8th president by the Executive Committee of the Trustees, Chairman  James S. Riepe announced Thursday morning in Houston Hall. The full Board will vote on Dr. Gutmann's appointment at its February 20 Stated Meeting.

Dr. Gutmann, 54, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values, will succeed President Judith Rodin on July 1. Dr. Rodin announced last June that she planned to step down after completing a decade.

"Amy is a brilliant scholar with a demonstrated commitment to undergraduate and graduate education, a proven and skilled administrator who understands the challenges of running a major research university and an articulate spokesperson about the essential role of higher education in our lives and in the future of our society," said Mr. Riepe, who chaired the search committee.

"She has established an extraordinary record of achievement during her more than 25 years at Princeton, most recently as provost. She is widely regarded as a world-class scholar whose research addresses many of the key issues facing our society today--from religious freedom, to race and affirmative action, to ethics and public affairs. As Dean of the Faculty, she was hugely effective in attracting excellent faculty to Princeton. Colleagues speak of her with the highest regard: Ôfair and evenhanded, courageous and willing to take on tough problems,' Ôrenowned for doing her homework, ' Ôthere are no limits to what this person can achieve.' We are confident that Amy is the ideal person to lead Penn forward into the next stage of its evolution," Mr. Riepe said.

"Penn has enormous energy and a dynamic spirit," Dr. Gutmann said. "It has extraordinary academic programs that span 12 schools, all of which are located together on one beautiful urban campus. Under Judy Rodin's leadership, Penn has established itself in the top rank of institutions, well positioned to face the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead. I look forward with great enthusiasm to working with faculty, students, staff, alumni and other members of the Penn family to help the University build upon its tradition of excellence in teaching, research and public service.

"I am also looking forward to moving to the great city of Philadelphia," she said, "with its wealth of cultural and historic institutions, and to becoming an active citizen of Penn's vibrant West Philadelphia community."

Mr. Riepe noted that the Board strongly believes it has found in Dr. Gutmann "someone to expand upon the phenomenal momentum the University has experienced during the last decadeÉ a dynamic leader who is both a renowned scholar and skilled administratorÉa champion of innovative academic ventures with a proven ability to recruit faculty of the  highest statureÉsomeone who will grow Penn's financial resources, enhance our entrepreneurial opportunities, and capitalize on our many strengths."

Dr. Gutmann has been provost since 2001, serving as Princeton's chief academic and chief budgetary officer, reporting to the president. She is responsible for long-range planning and for the coordination of the administrative and support functions of the University with its academic purposes. A faculty member there since 1976, she has taught political philosophy, democratic theory, the history of political thought and practical ethics.

Earning her B.A. magna cum laude in 1971 from Radcliffe College, she went on to earn an M.Sc. in political science in 1972 from the London School of Economics and her Ph.D. in political science in 1976 from Harvard University.

In 2003, she was awarded the Centennial Medal by Harvard for "graduate alumni who have made exceptional contributions to society." In 2000, she was awarded the President's Distinguished Teaching Award by Princeton. She has also received the Bertram Mott Award "in recognition of outstanding achievement towards advancing the goals of higher education," the Ralph J. Bunche Award "for the best scholarly work in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism," the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award and the Gustavus Myers Human Rights Award for the "outstanding book on the subject of human rights in North America" for Color Conscious, which she co-authored with K. Anthony Appiah.

Dr. Gutmann served as Princeton's Dean of the Faculty, 1995-97 and as Academic Advisor to the President, 1997-98. She was the founding director of the University Center for Human Values, a multi-disciplinary center that supports undergraduate and graduate teaching, a visiting fellows program, publication series and public discussions centered around issues of ethics.  

Dr. Gutmann is president of the American Society of Political and Legal Philosophy. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political Science and the National Academy of Education. She is a founding member of the Executive Committee of the American Association of Practical and Professional Ethics. She has lectured widely, in South Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. In 1994-95, she presented the Tanner Lectures in Human Values at Stanford.

Dr. Gutmann has been a Fellow at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), a Visitor at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She serves on the Board of Trustees of Stanford's CASBS and chairs the Executive Committee of the Board of Princeton University Press. She also serves on the editorial boards of many scholarly journals and on the Sawyer Seminar Committee of the Mellon Foundation. She has served on the re-accrediting team for Yale and on various national non-governmental, non-profit commissions. She has held fellowships from the Danforth Foundation, NEH and ACLS. She has been awarded a Major Scholars Grant and a Mentors Grant from the Spencer Foundation.

She is author of many books, most recently Identity in Democracy (2003); Democratic Education (second edition 1999);  Democracy and Disagreement (1996 with Dennis Thompson), named by Choice as one of the "outstanding political science books for 1997" and Color Conscious (1996, with K. Anthony Appiah).

Dr. Gutmann has also published more than 100 articles and essays and edited volumes in moral and political philosophy, practical ethics and education. Her scholarly works have been translated into many languages and have appeared in journals such as Ethics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Political Theory, Social Research and Stanford Law Review. Her reviews and essays have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Dissent, the Times Literary Supplement, the Washington Post.

She is married to Michael W. Doyle, Harold Brown Professor of Law and International Affairs at Columbia. Their daughter, Abigail, is a Ph.D. student in chemistry at Harvard.

Click here for a transcription of the Press Conference.