Leadership Transitions in the Office of the Chancellor
June 6, 2019
Dear Rutgers Faculty and Staff,
Since being appointed Chancellor of Rutgers–New Brunswick in February, I have carefully examined various organizational approaches that I believe will further position us for even greater success. To that end, I am pleased to share with you the following transitions effective July 1.
After serving as Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for 18 months, Dr. Wanda J. Blanchett will continue to apply her leadership and vision as Dean and Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of Education (GSE), as well as take on a new position for the coming year as Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Blanchett has served with distinction as Interim Provost, including representing us well among our peer institutions in the AAU and Big Ten Academic Alliance. She has made structural changes to better align the Provost's Office with national models and has convened and led the Dean's Council and academic budget planning processes. She played a pivotal role in the re-imagination of our new Office for Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, including the hiring of its new Vice Chancellor, and brought on board new deans for the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Her new role as Special Advisor will allow her to help us launch strategic academic initiatives while she resumes leadership of the GSE, which has been led ably for the past 18 months by Dr. Clark Chinn. We thank Clark for his service.
In order to enhance the many strong academic and research initiatives that have developed over the past year, I am excited to share that I have appointed Dr. Prabhas Moghe as Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Research and Academic Affairs. As a successful Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation for the past 18 months, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the School of Engineering, Dr. Moghe is extremely familiar with academic and research initiatives on our campus and has worked to cultivate collaborative networks across the university and peer institutions that will allow Rutgers to gain further ground as a premier land-grant research university. I have no doubt Dr. Moghe will continue to serve Rutgers well.
In addition, we have designed a new reporting structure to elevate and better utilize resources focused on undergraduate education. These changes include a redistribution of the functions of Undergraduate Academic Affairs (UAA) to the offices of the Provost and Chancellor, as well as to the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement.
As part of this realignment, Dr. Ben Sifuentes-Jauregui will join the Provost's Office as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, to help administer and optimize a variety of student academic programs and experiences. The Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, to be led by Vice Chancellor Dr. Enobong (Anna) Branch, who joins us in August, will oversee important student access and college-going programs in addition to leading efforts to build a more inclusive campus climate and creating strategies to increase diversity of our faculty, students, and staff. To bring greater emphasis, focus and coordination to both undergraduate and graduate student career placement opportunities, the University Career Services team will now report directly to the Chancellor's Office under Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration Dr. Felicia McGinty.
This is a formative period at Rutgers–New Brunswick as we continue to build an efficient institutional framework that will serve us and the more than 50,000 students we educate well in the future. Each and every one of us plays an important role in this endeavor, and I thank you in advance for your continued support and service to our university.
Sincerely,
Christopher J. Molloy, Ph.D.
Chancellor, Rutgers University–New Brunswick