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University President Gerhard Casper's Statement on the Restructure of Medical Center Leadership

In 1994 I actively pursued a reorganization of the Medical Center leadership that would have resulted in separating the roles of vice president and dean. The Stanford University Medical Center is such a large, complex and important part of the university that all those in leadership positions, including the university president, are at times overextended by the many and extremely varied demands made on them. If one adds the budget of the hospital and clinics (a distinct legal entity) to the overall university expenditures on the medical school, that total would constitute about half of the university budget.

In 1995 we put the search for a vice president on hold after discussions began on the possibility of combining the clinical services of Stanford and UCSF. Dr. Eugene Bauer was named dean of the School of Medicine, effective April 1, 1995, and, in 1997, was given the added responsibility of vice president for medical affairs.

Following last fall's decision to discontinue the merger, Dr. Bauer and I decided that Medical Center developments made it highly desirable to revisit the 1994 reorganization plans and we have now concluded that the roles of vice president and dean should indeed be separated.

With the support of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Bauer will assume the full-time position of vice president for the Medical Center. The office of the vice president will have responsibility for creating an overall clinical strategy that will minimize redundancies and effectively use scarce resources. The office will have oversight of Medical Center operations and external affairs, including development and government relations.

Under this reorganization the new dean will have the traditional and undiminished decanal responsibilities for the medical school's academic affairs. In these matters, the dean will report to the provost.

The provost, after consultation with the university Faculty Senate's Committee on Committees, will appoint a search committee that will be charged with recommending candidates for the position to the provost and president. Dr. Bauer will continue in the role of dean until a successor can take over.

Given the urgent need to attend to issues resulting from the dissolution of UCSF Stanford Health Care, the search committee will be asked to make its recommendations within a month following its constitution.

Because, ideally, the new dean will possess a deep knowledge of our medical school, its academic values, its relationship to the rest of the university and the developments that led to the merger and its dissolution, the focus of the search should be on internal candidates. However, like the recent search for a new dean of engineering, the committee may consider very promising outside candidates whose availability poses no major obstacle.

I am very pleased that Dr. Bauer has agreed to lead the Medical Center through the critical period that lies ahead and will represent the university president in all associated matters.

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