With Amy Gutmann’s departure expected soon, Penn names interim president

The University of Pennsylvania on Friday named its former provost as interim president effective upon the departure of Amy Gutmann, who is awaiting Senate approval to become U.S. ambassador to Germany.

Wendell E. Pritchett, who served as provost through December but took a leave of absence last semester, will take over when Gutmann resigns, the university said. He will stay in the post through June 30, when M. Elizabeth “Liz” Magill, the provost at the University of Virginia who once led Stanford’s law school, is scheduled to become president. Penn last month announced Magill’s selection, pending approval by the board of trustees at its March meeting.

“We are very fortunate to have someone with Wendell’s experience and stature to be able to step in and lead Penn through the transition to the start of Liz Magill’s presidency,” Scott Bok, chair of Penn’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “... He knows the people, and he has a deep understanding of Penn’s values and priorities.”

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Though his tenure will be brief, Pritchett would be Penn’s first president of color. Pritchett was provost — the chief academic officer at the university — more than four years before taking leave for the fall semester for a medical reason, the university said. He returned in January after recovering and was named senior adviser to the president. He plans to return to the law school as a faculty member in July.

“I’m very pleased to help during this important transition at Penn,” Pritchett said in a statement. “I care passionately about this institution — its faculty, staff and students.”

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Pritchett, who has a bachelor’s in political science from Brown University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, also is a Penn alum. He got a doctorate in history there in 1997.

He previously served on the faculty of Baruch College-City University of New York and joined Penn law faculty in 2002. He was chancellor of Rutgers-Camden from 2009 to 2014 and then returned to Penn.

He also had served as former Mayor Michael Nutter’s appointee to the School Reform Commission, the school district’s former governing body.

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Gutmann, 72, is Penn’s longest-serving president, who will have been in the post close to 18 years. A political scientist with a deft and deliberate leadership style, the energetic Gutmann set fund-raising records, made student financial aid a priority, and oversaw major construction projects including a nanotechnology center, the 24-acre Penn Park, and the $35 million Pennovation complex.

Gutmann’s nomination cleared a key procedural step in the Senate Wednesday and, according to a Democratic Senate aide, she could receive a final vote from the full Senate as soon as next week.