Wayne State provost picked as IUPUI chancellor

The man credited with developing a strategic plan for a Detroit metro school was picked Monday to run IU's Indianapolis campus.\nCharles R. Bantz, the provost at Wayne State University was named IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis' next chancellor. His appointment, which would start June 1, still must be approved by the IU board of trustees at its next meeting later this month.\n"I really like the challenges and richness of an urban university," Bantz said. "IUPUI is known nationally for student assessment, student achievement, and stellar research in some areas."\nBantz replaces Gerald Bepko, the retiring chancellor who is currently serving as the University's interim president. In accepting the recommendation from a 30-member search committee, Bepko said Monday that Bantz's work at Wayne State makes him particularly attractive for the Indianapolis job.\n"Based on the report of the search committee, discussions with University leaders who participated in the search process and my meetings with Charles, I am confident he is the right person for the job," Bepko said.\nBantz will encounter a student body similar to the one he leads as Wayne State's top academic administrator and one vastly different than the Bloomington populous. Like Wayne State and most urban schools, IUPUI has more non-traditional students, including commuter students, working students and professional school students.\nHe said he will continue to push IUPUI's Life Science Initiative as well as expanding its development in technology and medical research.\n"I like to work from data. I do a lot of listening. And then I like to put things to motion," said Bantz, who will make several trips to Indianapolis before June. "Once I'm there, there will be some things to move on much quicker than others, including the bi-annual budget, which we'll have to turn around pretty quick. But most of it will be continuing Jerry's vision while seeing where we can even be greater."\nUpon arrival, Bantz will enter a statewide brawl for public dollars.\nIU and the Indiana State Legislature have been in a fight for public funds over the past two years. IU says the money represents an invaluable investment while the state is desperate to save wherever it can during a difficult financial period. \nBantz is ready to talk to whoever will listen, though he realizes the severity of the state's situation.\n"If times are tough enough, no argument is good enough," Bantz said. "In those circumstances, I try to consult widely and protect the core parts of the University and improve efficiency to the degree you can." \nBantz was selected after a semester-long search that included more than 100 candidates. The search, chaired by John Walda, IU's executive director for federal relations and corporate partnerships and the former president of the trustees, was completely confidential. Walda, along with the committee's vice chair, IUPUI Nursing Dean Angela McBride were travelling and unavailable for comment.\nIn speaking to the Wayne State faculty Monday, Wayne State President Irvin D. Reid said that Bantz, who has been at Wayne State since August 2000, will be difficult to replace. \n"We will miss Charles, but recognize that the opportunity to lead an urban research campus is unique and one for which he is particularly well qualified," Reid said. "I will miss his advocacy of faculty, staff, students, and alumni, his effective leadership as chief academic officer of the University, as well as his enthusiasm for university partnerships with a variety of entities in Detroit."\nBantz's wife Sandra Petronio, will accompany him to IUPUI and will become a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies at IUPUI and join the Center on Bioethics at the IU School of Medicine. She worked with Bantz in the Department of Communication at Wayne State University.\nBantz was previously the vice provost and director of university continuous improvement at Arizona State University. Bantz had also been the chair of the Department of Communication at Arizona State and has been a faculty member at Arizona State, the University of Minnesota and the University of Colorado at Boulder.