In just her second day on the job, Interim State System Chancellor Karen Whitney visits IUP today for meetings with the university community. She says one of her top priorities in her new position is a collaborative, open, and trusting relationship with students, faculty, and staff.
The State System says Whitney will serve as interim chancellor until sometime next year, when a new chancellor is hired. A national search is just now getting underway following the retirement of Frank Brogan.
Whitney does not plan to be a placeholder. She promises a “very intense and productive year, using a transparent, highly communicative, collaborative and evidenced-based leadership style.”
Her leadership style as president of Clarion University the last seven years was one of the concerns of APSCUF, the faculty union which expressed questioned her hiring as interim chancellor. The union and the State System have just begun negotiations on a new contract, a year after a faculty strike shut down classes briefly during talks on the contract currently in place, which is scheduled to expire next June.
