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Gordon H. Lamb, a music professor and former president of a public urban university, was named interim chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, effective Feb. 1. Lamb succeeds UMKC Chancellor Eleanor Brantley Schwartz, who announced her desire to retire from administrative responsibilities Jan. 13.
Lamb's appointment was recommended by Manuel T. Pacheco, president of the University of Missouri System, and approved by the Board of Curators in its meeting on the UM-St. Louis campus Jan. 29. Lamb, who has said he will not be a candidate for permanent appointment, will head the UMKC campus while a national search is undertaken for a new chancellor.
Schwartz, chancellor of the University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1992 and dean of the Bloch School of Business from 1980 to 1986 said that she had requested and received permission from President Pacheco to retire from administrative duties effective Feb. 1.
Schwartz, 62, said she had considered such a move nearly a year ago, but delayed her request because of some unresolved public issues involving UMKC. Reorganization of the medical school curriculum and other administrative and academic changes have resulted in constructive comments from the medical education accrediting agency, she said.
Schwartz also was at the center of a battle over a controversial UMKC campus expansion plan that angered neighbors. University administrators recently came to an agreement to alter the plan.
Schwartz, who is a tenured professor in the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, will be given sabbatical leave to prepare for her return to teaching and research.
"Chancellor Schwartz has devoted much of her professional life to UM-Kansas City," Pacheco said, "and the University of Missouri is far better for her many contributions as teacher, researcher, chief academic officer and chancellor. I respect her request to retire from administrative duties. She has borne the responsibilities of chancellor for nearly six years, which exceeds the average for CEOs of public universities. It is no secret that the past year has brought exceptional, stressful and difficult challenges. Because her first consideration has been the welfare of the University, she has seen those challenges through."
Pacheco said that Schwartz was determined to leave her office with UMKC poised to pursue long-term goals under new leadership. She has led the effort to achieve Carnegie Research University II status, he said, and UMKC is within striking distance of meeting the criteria, which measure quality and breadth of academic programs, funding of research and strength of doctoral programs. UMKC also plans a major capital campaign, he said.
Schwartz joined UMKC as a dean in 1980. She served as interim vice chancellor for academic affairs in 1986-87 and was vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1987-1991. She was named interim chancellor in 1991 when George A. Russell became president of the UM System. Schwartz became UMKC's chancellor in 1992.
"Dr. Lamb has just the background and outlook we need at this juncture in the life of the University of Missouri-Kansas City," Pacheco said. "He is an effective administrator, he has dealt for years with the special challenges facing a public, urban university, he has outstanding academic credentials and he is attuned to the performing arts, which are so much a part of our Kansas City campus." Pacheco said his choice of Lamb also was influenced by the fact that Lamb is an "outsider" and that Lamb will not compete for the permanent appointment. "He will be able to bring an unbiased perspective to campus decision making," Pacheco said.
The search for a permanent chancellor will begin promptly, Pacheco said, in hopes of having a new chancellor on board by next August or September.
Lamb, 64, who served as interim chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from July 1997 to March 1998, was President of Northeastern Illinois University, in the metropolitan Chicago area, from 1986 to 1995. From 1979 to 1986, he was vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio. From 1974 to 1978, he was professor of music and director of the Division of Music at UT at San Antonio, and from 1970 to 1974, he was assistant professor of music at the University of Texas at Austin.
He earned his bachelor's degree in music education from Simpson College (Iowa) in 1956, his master's in music from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1962 and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1973.
