Petersen of UConn picked as next UT president
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The University of Connecticut provost and executive vice president for academic affairs is expected to assume his duties at UT by July 1. He will have a base salary of $380,000, a $20,000 expense allowance, use of a university car and use of the university president’s home.
“You can’t imagine how excited Carol and I are to have this opportunity,” an elated Petersen told the UT Board of Trustees after it selected him Wednesday over two other finalists.
The 56-year-old Petersen and his wife were presented with orange UT Lady Volunteers basketball team visors and an UT-orange tie.
“I told you it was a pretty good color for me,” said Petersen, accustomed to the color when he headed the chemistry department at Clemson University in the 1990s.
“I feel I have found the job I have been working 29 years to find and that is the leadership job of one of the best institutions in the country. One that I think is really going to show the South and the rest of the country what an institution can do.”
An unusually open and lengthy search process was organized to try to ensure Tennessee’s next president would not go down in scandal like the two previous presidents, John Shumaker in August and J. Wade Gilley in 2001.
The character of the next president for the five-campus, 42,000-student system “was the baseline issue,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen, who chairs the UT Board of Trustees.
From an original slate of 47 applicants, Petersen was selected after three rounds of public, Webcast interviews before three different university panels. There also were background checks, resume confirmations and home site visits by the search committees.
“There was an enormous scrubbing of candidates. And I promise you that everybody who knew anything negative about these candidates made it known,” Bredesen said. “I think this has been a great victory for an open process.”
Utah State President and history professor Kermit Hall, 59, came in a close second in a head-to-head vote against Petersen after the trustees eliminated the third finalist, Jack O. Burns, 51, the No. 2 executive at the University of Colorado system.
In the final tally of the 23-member board, Petersen received 14 votes and Hall had nine.
“Any one of them I would have been delighted to have as the president,” Bredesen said, adding, “I am delighted with John and look forward to working with him.”
Trustees talked about Petersen’s reputation for making academics a priority, his ability to raise money from donors, his ease with legislators and that he seemed the best “fit” of the candidates for Tennessee.
Peterson’s soon-to-be former boss at UConn said he was sorry to lose him but wished him well.
“Over the past four academic years, Provost Peterson has guided the University’s academic and student life programs through some exceptionally challenging times, and we have come to value John’s friendship,” UConn president Philip Austin said in a statement Wednesday. “I know he will make a major contribution to the University of Tennessee.”
A Los Angeles native with a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Petersen was a researcher and professor first at Kansas State University and then at Clemson.
Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton, a Clemson graduate, said Petersen joked with him, “If one guy from Clemson can be successful here, two could.”
After 13 years at Clemson, Petersen was dean of science for six years at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he led outreach programs in the public schools to increase minority enrollment.
Since 2000, he has been at Connecticut, where he is provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
“I voted for Petersen,” trustee Lynn Johnson said. “UConn is a very good school. It is much like ours. I think he would work well with the Legislature.”
During his interview Wednesday, Petersen talked about academic excellence, involving faculty and students in decision-making and raising Tennessee’s national rankings. He also talked about his previous work helping state economic development teams in South Carolina, Michigan and Connecticut.
He was asked about his tour of the official president’s residence. Lavish spending to renovate the house contributed to Shumaker’s downfall.
“You see any changes you’d like to make in the home?” trustee Susan Williams said in a query that brought anxious laughs from the board.
“No, it is a gorgeous home,” Petersen responded as the chuckles continued. “Our furniture matches the decorations quite well.”