In Review: University Notebook

President Sarah Mangelsdorf has announced that she plans to make separate appointments for Rochester’s next provost and next vice president for research.

Separating the two cabinet-level positions marks a return to a previous organizational structure, Mangelsdorf noted, but the move represents the importance of having designated leadership to focus on each of the key areas of academic affairs and the research enterprise.

Beginning July 1, Sarah Peyre, currently dean of the Warner School of Education, will serve for six months as interim provost, while a search of a new provost gets under way. That search will be chaired by Mark Taubman, CEO of the Medical Center and UR Medicine.

Also on July 1, Stephen Dewhurst, currently vice dean for research at the School of Medicine and Dentistry and associate vice president for health sciences research for the University, will begin a one-year appointment as interim vice president for research.

The interim appointments come as Rob Clark, who has served as both provost and senior vice president for research, steps down from the roles to return to the faculty in the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences.

Also this spring, Dave Lewis, the University’s chief information officer and vice president for information technology, announced he is retiring at the end of June.

And Mary Ann Mavrinac, vice provost and the Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean of the University of Rochester Libraries, announced she is stepping down at the end of October.

University Commits to $15 Minimum Wage

As part of a regional effort to address poverty, the University has committed to setting the institution’s minimum wage at $15 an hour by December 2022.

President Sarah Mangelsdorf announced the increase this winter as part of the University’s work with the Roch-ester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative, a multisector community collaborative founded in 2015 with a goal of reducing poverty and increasing self-sufficiency in the region.

The University has been involved with the initiative since its founding and is a member of the effort’s steering committee.

The University’s wage increase will be implemented in two stages—December 2021 and December 2022.

Across all of its affiliates, the University represents the fifth largest private sector employer in New York State; the largest private employer in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region; and, through UR Medicine, the largest health care system in upstate New York.

In addition to the wage increase, the University and its affiliates, including the Mt. Hope Family Center, UR Medicine Homecare, and the Children’s Institute, as well as East High School have contributed to the initiative’s plans and to other important community partnerships.

The University has also joined other community organizations in signing RMAPI’s pledge to combat poverty and structural racism in the community.

Yamaha Recognizes Eastman School’s Excellence

The Yamaha Corporation of America has named the Eastman School of Music as one of just 10 schools in the company’s inaugural Institution of Excellence program.

The recognition acknowledging Eastman’s commitment to innovation in the study of music.

Yamaha and Eastman have enjoyed a long-standing relationship. The Yamaha Graduate Fellows program at the Eastman Leadership Conference, established in 2017 and run by Eastman’s Institute for Music Leadership, recognizes Eastman’s role in music leadership and development, and provides current and future music school leaders the opportunity to learn and discuss policies, programs, and strategies in a collaborative, professional, and musically rich environment. Yamaha graduate fellows receive full-tuition scholarships, supported by Yamaha.

This year’s 10 schools were selected by Yamaha following a rigorous, nationwide nomination and review process. Honorees were chosen for their dedication to providing unique and challenging experiences to their music students through diversity of thought and curriculum, exposure to a wider variety of voices and opportunities, and an emphasis on preparing students for the modern world of music.

Simon Named Most Diverse Top-50 MBA Program

The Simon Business School is the most diverse MBA program within the top 50 business schools, according to a new ranking in US News & World Report.

The ranking is based on the percentage of African American, Black, Hispanic American, and Native American students enrolled in full-time MBA programs last year.

For Simon, that class includes students from 19 different countries; 46 percent of domestic students are from historically underrepresented groups; and 42 percent of students are women.

In 1968, Simon was one of the first schools to join the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, which promotes diversity among American businesses.

Nursing Office Named for Harriet Kitzman

The School of Nursing has renamed its Center for Research Support in memory of the late Harriet Kitzman ’61W (MS), ’84N (PhD). The Harriet J. Kitzman Center for Research Support

is a tribute to the legacy of Kitzman, who died in March 2020. A prolific researcher in a more than 60-year career as a nurse, professor, mentor, and leader, she was known on campus as much for her groundbreaking work with nurse-home visits as she was for encouraging and supporting others in their own lines of research.

Over a 45-year tenure, Kitzman was closely associated with the school’s research mission. She was the school’s longtime senior associate dean of research, serving in that capacity into her 80s.

The center helps facilitate the research and scholarly development of nursing faculty and advances research dissemination and evidence-based practice.

Awards & Appointments

Time Magazine Highlights Engineer

Ranga Dias, a professor of mechanical engineering, was named to Time magazine’s list of emerging leaders. Recognized for his lab’s work to develop materials that are superconducting at room temperature, Dias was selected for the Time 100 Next list, an offshoot of the magazine’s well-known annual list of innovators, pioneers, artists, and other leaders.

Double Honors for Art Historian

Peter Christensen, an associate professor of art and art history, has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for the 2021–22 academic year, as well as a residency at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was one of only 175 scholars chosen by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for the highly sought fellowship.

Visual Science Center Director Named

Susana Marcos, an internationally recognized expert in the optics of the eye and the interactions of light with the retina, has been appointed the David R. Williams Director of the Center for Visual Science.

The position, named for the longtime center director, is endowed with a $2 million gift from University Trustee John Bruning and his wife, Barbara. Marcos will also be the inaugural holder of the Nicholas George Professorship at the University’s Institute of Optics.

Currently a professor at the Instituto de Óptica, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Madrid, Spain, Marcos succeeds Williams as director on July 1.

Largest Medical Department Has New Chair

Ruth O’Regan, most recently the chief of hematology, medical oncology, and palliative care at the University of Wisconsin, has been appointed as the Charles A. Dewey Professor and chair of medicine at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, as of January 1.

As chair, O’Regan oversees the Medical Center’s largest clinical and academic department, home to nearly 500 faculty across 14 divisions. She succeeds Paul Levy, who stepped down after a decade as chair.

An internationally recognized breast cancer researcher and clinician, O’Regan has also been named an associate director at the Wilmot Cancer Institute.