President John Simon announced that Provost Pat Farrell will be stepping down effective June 30, 2020 in an email to the campus community earlier today.
Farrell will take a one year sabbatical and will return to the faculty the following year on July 1, 2021. Simon said in the email a search committee will be created in order to find Farrell’s successor and expects a “high level of interest” in the position.
Farrell has been a member of the Lehigh community since July 2009 and has been a part of several university initiatives such as the implementation of Lehigh’s Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiative, which aims at creating a more diversified Lehigh faculty; Lehigh’s Cluster Initiative, which sees cross-disciplinary faculty members focusing on a specific issue; and working to create a more inclusive campus. Earlier this year, the Provost’s Office announced major changes to class schedules starting in the coming fall.
Simon said in the email that Farrell has more that he hopes to accomplish before he begins his sabbatical.
2 Comments
Farrell has been a lack luster unremarkable provost since the day he was appointed. He has pandered to the politically correct foolishness that has dominated Lehigh for far too many years.
He will not be missed.
Agreed. One can only surmise that the blow-back from all of the PC-rooted nonsense is catching up to him, in addition to the declines in Lehigh’s rankings, the Path to Irrelevance, and the nebulous “build it and they will come” College of Health…
One can only hope that Ric Hall will be next to follow him out the door, as his tenure has been equally disruptive to Lehigh, as evidenced by the tremendous decline in recognized Greek chapters, crackdowns and outright arrests of students for doing what college students do and have always done (partying), and the unprecedented exodus of staff from the Student Affairs office!
It’s time for real leadership from someone who really understands what Lehigh is about – a Lehigh alum. Enough with the hired help who don’t understand Lehigh’s culture and want to change everything to suit their own goals and use their “accomplishments” as resume builders at the expense of Lehigh and its students.
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