AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Edie N. Goldenberg, dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts for the University of Michigan and an expert in the area of the news media and political campaigns, has been named executive vice president and provost at The University of Texas at Austin. Her appointment was announced Monday (July 6) by UT President Larry R. Faulkner and is effective Oct. 1.
Goldenberg’s selection followed a national search by the University to replace former Provost Mark Yudof, who left UT last summer to become president of the University of Minnesota. A list of 100 candidates was compiled and narrowed to three finalists by a search committee made up of UT faculty and students. The committee submitted the list of finalists to Faulkner in early June.
A professor of political science and public policy, Goldenberg has been dean since 1989. She also has served as director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies at Michigan, and worked more than two years at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management on reforms to the federal civil service system.
“Edie Goldenberg has shown extraordinary strength of leadership over a long period in one of the most complex and most distinguished academic jobs in America,” said Faulkner. “We are fortunate to have attracted her to Texas. She has the skill and perspective to foster quality in our academic programs, and I look forward with pleasure to collaborating with her toward that end.
“On behalf of the entire University, I thank the search committee for identifying an outstanding group of finalists, and I express deep appreciation to Dean Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Dean Morton Lowengrub for participating in this search to the end. Dean Ekland-Olson has my highest regard, and that of his colleagues, for his wonderful leadership in the largest of our colleges. It is to the great advantage of the University that his ability will be retained in that critical post. Dean Lowengrub has an exceptional record at Indiana University, and will surely contribute very positively to American higher education in the years ahead.”
The provost position is the University’s chief academic officer and is responsible for college/school planning and advising, academic programs, faculty recruiting and management of the overall UT Austin academic budget.
Goldenberg received her undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 and her master’s and doctorate degrees from Stanford University. She joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1974.
“I am honored to be asked to come to Austin and join the leadership team at the University of Texas,” Goldenberg said. “I have been very impressed by the students, faculty and staff I’ve met so far and their enthusiasm for high quality academic programs. I am looking forward to this wonderful opportunity to become part of an exceptional educational and scholarly community and to contribute to its future growth and success.”As a faculty member and as former director of the institute, Goldenberg has been heavily involved in the education of graduate students interested in careers in the public sector. As dean of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA), Goldenberg has been concerned with sustaining and enhancing distinguished programs in the humanities, sciences and social sciences. She also was responsible for developing and implementing a major undergraduate initiative and for successfully completing a $180 million fundraising campaign for arts and sciences as part of the overall $1.4 billion Campaign for Michigan.
The LSA is the largest academic unit at Michigan, with approximately two-thirds of all Michigan undergraduates, one-third of the faculty, 30 programs/centers/institutes/museums, 23 departments, a budget of more than $200 million and 35 buildings.
