Among the six Ivy League provosts to most recently pursue college presidencies, half have landed at major public research institutions. The latest addition to that group is Mark S. Schlissel, Brown University’s chief academic officer, who will ascend to the University of Michigan’s top job this summer, Michigan announced on Friday.
Dr. Schlissel, an internist and biochemist, said in an interview that the Michigan presidency was among only about 10 positions across higher education that would have compelled him to leave Brown, where he has been provost since 2011.
“Michigan is truly a full-service research university, with scholars across such a wide spectrum at such a high level,” said Dr. Schlissel, 56. “The opportunity to do scholarship that cuts across disciplines is almost unmatched. I love the public ethos of the university.”
Dr. Schlissel cited the University of California at Berkeley, where he was previously dean of biological sciences, as another position that would have interested him had the timing been right. (Berkeley named a new chancellor in 2012.)
Dr. Schlissel’s appointment follows that of Carol L. Folt, who served as Dartmouth College’s provost and then interim president before taking the reins at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last July. Years earlier, in 2008, Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin followed a similar trajectory, advancing from provost at Cornell University to chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. (Ms. Martin is now president of Amherst College.)
“We are seeing more blurring of the lines between public and private at the very-high-level research universities, and publics are wanting to bring people from private institutions,” said Lucy A. Leske, who assists colleges in presidential searches.
Ms. Leske, who is managing partner and director of the executive-search firm Witt/Kieffer’s higher-education practice, said that trustees at major public research institutions may believe that administrators at private colleges have more expertise in securing research dollars and private money.
“Their funding is dropping, so they need people who are creative and entrepreneurial,” Ms. Leske said.
In recent years, two Ivy League provosts have landed the top job at their home institutions. In 2012 Peter Salovey, Yale University’s provost and a professor of psychology, was named its president. Christopher L. Eisgruber, a constitutional scholar and provost at Princeton University, was named president there last April.
A Question of Timing
For an Ivy League provost to advance from within, timing may be critical. Mr. Salovey and Mr. Eisgruber both succeeded presidents who had served for more than a decade, allowing for a natural transition. In contrast, the four Ivy League provosts who most recently found presidencies elsewhere all served under presidents who had been in place for fewer than five years. In other words, the top jobs at their home institutions were less likely to be open anytime soon.
“Timing has a great deal to do with it,” Ms. Leske said.
Ronald J. Daniels, who moved from the University of Pennsylvania’s provost position to the presidency of the Johns Hopkins University in 2009, served under Amy Gutmann, who took the helm at Penn in 2004.
Dr. Schlissel had been provost at Brown for only two months when, in 2011, Ruth J. Simmons, the university’s president, announced her intent to resign.
Dr. Schlissel said Ms. Simmons’s decision to step down had surprised him, but the leadership transition at Brown had not been a factor in his decision to consider the Michigan presidency.
“I was in the middle of a five-year appointment, and I intended to serve it out,” Dr. Schlissel said. “It wasn’t as though I was looking to leave Brown. There are so few jobs of this caliber that it was hard for me to let it go by without thinking about it.”
Dr. Schlissel will succeed Mary Sue Coleman, who has been Michigan’s president for 11 years.
Ms. Coleman is among the nation’s highest-paid public-college presidents. In 2012, when she earned $918,783 in total compensation, she trailed just five other public-college leaders in pay, according to a Chronicle analysis.
Dr. Schlissel, who has agreed to a five-year term beginning in July, will earn a $750,000 base salary, a $100,000 annual retention incentive, and $20,000 in yearly supplemental retirement contributions on top of the university’s standard benefits.
“I didn’t negotiate,” Dr. Schlissel said. “I said thank you very much.”