Judith Rodin

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Judith Rodin (born 1944 as Judith Seitz) was the first permanent woman president of an Ivy League university. She served as the seventh president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1994-2004. In 2005 Rodin was named president of the Rockefeller Foundation. A University of Pennsylvania alumna, she received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1970.

Rodin is credited with expanding and improving the University and creating numerous interdisciplinary programs. She led an effort to build new relationships with the community and used the university resources to engage and support it. Leading a collaboration with the surrounding community, Rodin encouraged revitalization in University City and West Philadelphia through public safety, Wharton School alliances for small businesses, developing buildings and streetscapes that turned outward to the community, and establishing a university-led partnership school. The Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School and other partnership schools in West Philadelphia bring the university's resources to improve education in the area.^[1]

During her tenure at Penn, the University tripled its endowment and rose from 16th to 4th in the U.S. News & World Report college ranking.^[2] Capitalizing upon her influence, Rodin brought Bono, of the rock group U2, to address the University during the 2004 commencement ceremonies. ^[3] In her final year at Penn, Rodin's salary was $986,915.^[4] At one time, she was the highest paid university president in the country.^[5]

Professional highlights

Rodin became president of the Rockefeller Foundation in March 2005.

She is currently on the Board of Directors of Citigroup, AMR Corporation (the parent company of American Airlines), and Comcast Corporation where she served as the presiding director until 2006.^[6] Rodin has also served on the Board of Directors for corporations such as Aetna, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and BlackRock. ^[7] She continues to serve as a trustee of the Brookings Institution.

Academic

She was Provost of Yale University from 1992 to 1994, when she moved to University of Pennsylvania.^[8] She held various professorial and other positions at Yale from 1972 to 1994, including Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the Department of Psychology. Rodin has published more than 200 articles and chapters in academic publications and authored or co-authored eleven books.^[9] Her most recent book is Public Discourse in America (2003).

Commencement speeches and honorary degrees

2007

• Dartmouth College^[10]

2006

• University of Pittsburgh^[11]
• Franklin & Marshall^[12]
• Yeshiva University^[13]

2004

• New York University^[14]
• University of Pennsylvania^[15]
• Brown University^[16]

Awards and honors

In 2003, Rodin was presented with the Philadelphia Award, recognizing "citizen[s] of the region who [have] done the most to advance the best and largest interest of the community."^[17]

Personal

Rodin is married to Paul R. Verkuil^[18], a former President of the College of William and Mary, former dean of the Tulane University Law School and former CEO of the American Automobile Association.^[19] Verkuil is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he served previously as dean.^[19] They have three children.^[20]

Work at Penn

While Rodin was president, the University of Pennsylvania outsourced a number of services previously run by the university. Building services were contracted out to Trammell Crow, an arrangement that was ended after four years.^[21] The move resulted in layoffs that led to protests and a lawsuit by angered students and staff.^{[citation needed]} Another set of protests stemmed from the layoff of Faculty Club employees when the Club was moved and the University contracted with DoubleTree to operate the Club.^[22][23]

During Rodin's presidency, the Penn administration resisted efforts by graduate students to form a labor union.^[24] The National Labor Relations Board initially ruled that graduate students were entitled to hold union elections, yet upon appeal, the NLRB reversed the earlier opinion and held that graduate students were not entitled to organize a union.^[25][26] In response, there was a protest by the graduate student group leading the unionization effort on campus when Rodin's 2003 book Public Discourse in America was released.^[27]

In 2003, she was named to the PoliticsPA list of "Pennsylvania's Most Politically Powerful Women".^[28]

See also

• List of Ivy League university presidents

References

External links

Other biographical summaries

• Biography from the Rockefeller Foundation
• Profile at Sourcewatch.org

Reviews of Rodin's tenure at Penn

• "Rodin legacy" at Penn
• Critical Review of Rodin's Tenure at Penn
• Daily Pennsylvanian editorial board Evaluation of Rodin's era