Eisgruber '83 to succeed Gutmann as provost

Christopher Eisgruber '83, a professor in the Wilson School and Center for Human Values, will be the University's next provost, President Tilghman announced yesterday.

She described Eisgruber as the candidate who "exceed[ed] all my expectations."

According to two high-level Princeton officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, Tilghman settled on her choice only late last week, picking Eisgruber over approximately six other candidates.

The executive committee of the Board of Trustees met on Friday to give Eisgruber, who will serve as the president's chief academic and budgetary officer, its official stamp of approval.

Eisgruber succeeds Amy Gutmann, who leaves Princeton on June 30 to become president of the University of Pennsylvania.

As the second-ranking officer of the University, the provost is responsible for the overall academic program and provides general oversight for many University operations. The provost also chairs the Priorities Committee and makes recommendations regarding the University budget to the president and the Board of Trustees.

No agenda — yet

Eisgruber reacted to the news of his appointment with delight. "I'm happy," he said, "a little dazed, but happy."

While acknowledging in an interview his love for teaching and research, Eisgruber said, "The opportunity to work for this situation and this president were too wonderful to pass up."

As it stands, Eisgruber doesn't have "anything of an agenda yet," but is focused on learning more about his new job.

"For me, the main challenge on the immediate horizon is to learn much more about this University," he said. "I've spent time here as a student and as a faculty member, in capacities where I only see bits and pieces. What I look forward to is learning more about what goes on here and understanding better the projects that need work."

Eisgruber is unaware of how his name came up in the search process. "I can certainly tell you that I did not enter my own name," he said. "[Tilghman] eventually spoke to me and asked me whether I was interested."

In January, when the search for Gutmann's successor began, Vice Provost for Administration Joann Mitchell said faculty members would begin nominating each other, noting that it "would not be unusual for someone to nominate themself" for the post.

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During the search process, one question raised was which department the next provost should come from.

Currently, two of the University's top three academic officials are scientists: Tilghman is a molecular biologist, and the Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin, the third-in-command, is a computer scientist.

Tilghman acknowledged the advantage of Eisgruber's membership in the Wilson School and Center for Human Values for his candidacy.

"At the outset I had hoped to find someone who [was] in the social sciences and humanities, given the number of engineers and scientists in the current senior administration," she said, adding that, "Nevertheless, I considered faculty from all four divisions before narrowing the list to Eisgruber."

The news of Eisgruber's appointment comes just three weeks after it was announced Gutmann would leave after 28 years at the University.

Down the road

Gutmann's departure to Penn continues a longstanding tradition of Princeton's provosts rising through the ranks to become president at other universities. But Eisgruber said he has no such plans of his own.

"One of the questions I asked people when I was thinking about the job was whether this is the sort of job people take if they want to be a university president," he said. "I wanted to be sure that it would be reasonable to think that I could do this job and do it well and then move back into teaching and research."

Eisgruber is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Public Affairs in the Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values. He is also director of the Program in Law and Public Affairs.

His academic research focuses on constitutional theory, religious liberty, legal philosophy and adjudicative institutions.

While studying as an undergraduate at Princeton, Eisgruber majored in physics. He received an M. Litt. in politics from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.