With Father John Jenkins named as the next University president, John Affleck-Graves named as executive vice president and Carol Mooney named as Saint Mary's president, all three of Notre Dame's vice president and associate provost positions are vacant.According to Mary Pugel, the executive assistant to the provost, these vacancies will not directly affect the critical functions of the office but will force remaining members to take on additional work. University President Father Edward Malloy said that the loss of Mooney, Affleck-Graves and Jenkins would keep Provost Nathan Hatch busy."The top three officers in the provost's office are going somewhere else," he said. "[That] creates pressure on Nathan as provost."Malloy said that Hatch, the University's second-ranking officer, is "already in the process of looking for candidates for the positions," and noted that the Board of Trustees executive committee, who must approve any nominations, can do so between the BOT's regularly scheduled meetings. An extensive search for Mooney's replacement is being conducted with the help of a search consultant to interview candidates both inside and outside of the University, and Pugel said that Hatch hopes to make a decision on this position by mid-May.Pugel said that Hatch will now also have to focus his attention on searching for candidates for the two other vacancies."[He] will immediately be turning his attention to the other two positions," Pugel said. "That will be one of his top priorities. They'll certainly receive immediate attention because they are key positions within the office."Although Pugel said she is unaware of the specifics of the search process - including a possible timeline or the use of a consultant - for Jenkins' and Affleck-Graves' replacements, she said it is Hatch's policy to find the best candidate possible."[He] always looks to the best possible person," Pugel said. "Sometimes [a search process] might take a little longer. Whoever he will find [will] be the best person, whether internal or external [to the University]."Pugel said that although Hatch makes the final decision on the replacements for each position, she expects that he will be in consultation with both Jenkins and Malloy.She also noted that Hatch would probably turn to other members of the office to fulfill some of the core duties and anticipated some projects of lesser priority would need to be set aside."As necessary, I'm sure Hatch will look to other people in the office to take up the slack. I'm sure that some other projects ... would need to be put aside," Pugel said.But she said critical areas will not be affected."Anything that would impact faculty decisions - any critical areas that someone would need to have a decision on - those will be made," Pugel said. As Jenkins has been on leave this academic year, Pugel noted that associate provost Maura Ryan fulfilled many of his responsibilities in his former associate provost and vice president position. Pugel said that although Jenkins, Mooney and Affleck-Graves share the same job title, their responsibilities differ."Each the jobs have distinct areas of responsibility," she said. "Each of the positions calls for some different set of skills."Pugel said Mooney was primarily responsible for faculty issues such as tenure and promotion, faculty grievance and faculty well-being. Affleck-Graves' duties included "academic budget issues, academic space utilization and information technology" while Jenkins was responsible for "undergraduate education and international studies."Hatch could not be reached for comment.
