Trustees Appoint Provost

Peter D. Salins, interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the State University of New York, was appointed Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs by SUNY’s Board of Trustees in August.

Chairman Thomas F. Egan said, “We on the Board of Trustees are fortunate to have Peter D. Salins accept our invitation to serve as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the State University of New York.”

Egan added, “In coming to know Dr. Salins over the past months, during which time he has served as Interim Provost, I have been impressed by both his academic credentials and administrative skills. At a time when we have the opportunity to move the State University into the forefront of American higher education.

Salins has been serving as interim provost since January. He previously served as a department chairman, public university professor, urban planning scholar, author, and national urban planning expert for the White House. Since 1993, Salins has served as either chairman of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, or as director of the graduate program in urban planning at Hunter College.

Salins recently served as a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Panel for the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Guiliani said, “ Salins will provide strong, innovative leadership as a member of the SUNY management team. My best wishes to him.”

A Port Washington resident, Salins earned an undergraduate degree in architecture, a M.R.P. and a Ph.D., from Syracuse University. His major field as a doctoral student was regional planning. As a doctoral candidate, he was a Herbert H. Lehman Fellow from 1966-1969.

Executive Vice Chancellor Named

Chancellor John W. Ryan said Dunn “will help provide the valuable time and flexibility necessary for me and the University community at large to more effectively meet the challenges of campus mission review, resource allocation, System Administration restructuring and student recruitment.”

In seeking to fill this position, Ryan, informed the board that it would allow for the consolidation of the responsibilities formerly carried out by the Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Management and the Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities. “This will result, not only in budget savings to the University, but addresses the efficiency and effectiveness goals of Rethinking SUNY and our system restructuring.”

Dunn, a Niagara Falls native, has most recently been serving as first deputy secretary to the governor of New York. Before that he ran his own fiscal consulting firm, DGD Fiscal. He was First Deputy Comptroller for the State of New York from 1983 through 1993.

Acting Vice Chancellor Made Permanent

John J. O’Connor on June 24 was named Vice Chancellor and Secretary of the SUNY System.

O’Connor had held the position in an acting capacity since December 17, 1996. He previously served for 14 years in senior posts at New York University, with responsibilities as vice president for university relations and executive assistant to the president. He most recently was president of The Ballintober Group, a Manhattan-based firm providing management services to educational and cultural organizations in the U.S. and abroad.

A Maine native, O’Connor also served in Washington D.C. as press secretary and special assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is director and assistant secretary of The American Ditchley Foundation, trustee of the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center Foundation and a Fellow of the British Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce.