Gros Louis to be named interim chancellor

Former IU-Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis will be named interim chancellor today when IU President Adam Herbert makes his recommendation to the board of trustees.\nGros Louis will take over the role Jan. 1 from Chancellor Sharon Brehm, who announced her resignation Oct. 30.\nIU Trustee Jamie Belanger said the president is expected to make his recommendation today and it will be discussed by the board of trustees at their Dec. 5 meeting.\nBrehm's resignation came as a part of Herbert's restructuring plans. Since the announcement, Herbert has been working with faculty groups such as the Bloomington Faculty Council to name an interim chancellor to hold the position into next year, said Dan Rives, associate vice president of Human Resources.\nOnce Gros Louis officially steps in, he will aid Herbert and others in assessing the role of chancellor as a part of the restructuring plan.\nThe search for a permanent chancellor is expected to begin in the fall of 2004, with a final decision coming sometime in the late fall or early spring of that school year. \nGros Louis came to IU in 1963 after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in medieval and Renaissance Literature. He worked as a professor and then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences before being named chancellor in 1980.\nGros Louis stepped down in 2001 and was replaced by Brehm. Since then, Gros Louis has served as chancellor emeritus.\n"Ken has provided outstanding leadership for the Bloomington campus for an extraordinarily long period of time," said former President Myles Brand following Gros Louis' retirement in 2001. "He is a man of deep learning and human compassion and someone who has represented the best values of the academy."\nGros Louis served as IUB chancellor through the presidencies of John Ryan, Tom Ehrlich and Brand, and was a close friend of Herman B Wells.\nPresident of the board of trustees Fred Eichorn said in a previous IDS article that Gros Louis was a definite candidate.\nGros Louis also commented in the article on his planned approach toward the position should he be selected.\n"I would want to be more involved with insuring that our University with several campuses remains just that, a University with several campuses," he said. "It's important that the University does not become fragmented."\nAt the November BFC meeting, Herbert made it clear that he would be looking for someone who either holds, or previously held, a faculty appointment on the Bloomington campus as a senior level administrator. He also planned on that person having significant knowledge of some of the history, traditions and organizational structures of IU. \n"My impression is he's made a carefully thought-out decision," Law Professor Fred Cate said.