Jack L. Daniel Resigns as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies at Pitt, Effective Dec. 31, 2005

PITTSBURGH-Jack L. Daniel, vice provost for undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, will resign from that post effective Dec. 31, 2005, Pitt Provost James V. Maher announced today. A member of the provost's senior staff since 1984, Daniel will remain a professor of communication in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences.

"Few people have cared about Pitt as deeply or contributed as much to its progress as Jack Daniel," said Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. "He and I have worked closely together, on a wide range of matters, for the last 20 years. I have long considered him to be a particularly capable colleague, astute advisor, and good friend. It is our shared hope to stay connected, both professionally and personally, as he moves into this new and exciting chapter of his life."

"It is with deep regret that I have accepted the resignation of Dr. Daniel, who wishes to focus his considerable energies on his scholarship and other special assignments," Maher said. "His decision to step down from his current administrative position will conclude almost four decades of successful administrative leadership and service to the University.

"Throughout his career, Dr. Daniel has concentrated on continuous improvement of undergraduate education, facilitating efforts to provide students with exemplary educational opportunities both inside and outside the classroom," Maher added. "He entered the world of academic administration because of an abiding interest in effecting social change, committed to working from a position of strength to encourage success for all students. In recent years, Dr. Daniel helped to build upon and solidify the necessary connections between student and academic life, a lasting and significant contribution to our educational mission."

Daniel is a Pitt alumnus, earning the B.S. degree in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 1963 and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in communication at the Pittsburgh campus in 1965 and 1968, respectively. He was an American Council on Education Fellow at Stanford University in 1973-74 and is a 1986 alumnus of Harvard University's Institute for Educational Management. He began his Pitt career as assistant professor of communication in 1968 and rose to the rank of associate professor a year later, serving as chair of the Department of Black Studies from 1969 to 1974, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1974 to 1978, associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1978 to 1984, assistant provost for undergraduate programs from 1984 to 1987, associate provost for undergraduate programs from 1987 to 1992, and vice provost for academic affairs from 1992 to 2002. Promoted to professor of communication in 1999, he was named vice provost for undergraduate studies in 2002 when he added the role of dean of students to his responsibilities from September 2002 through June 2005. He served as interim dean of the College of General Studies from 1997 to 1999 and was interim dean of students in 2001-02.

Daniel teaches in the area of African American communication, and his current research and writing interests include African American family communication. In his administrative role, Daniel has served as chair of the Enrollment Management Steering Committee, coordinating a number of campuswide activities related to student recruitment, retention, satisfaction, graduation, and placement. Also among his responsibilities have been new undergraduate academic programs and work with the Chancellor's Diversity Task Force and Equipoise on issues relating to diversity.

An active member of the National Communication Association (NCA), Daniel has served as secretary, vice president, and president of the NCA's Black Caucus. He is or has been a member of the Governing Board of the College Board, the Commission on Human Resources and Social Change, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, the Florida Education Fund's Council of Elders, the board of directors of INROADS/Pittsburgh, Investing Now, and the Hill House Association.

Among Daniel's honors and recognitions are NCA's Spotlight Program on the Contributions of Jack L. Daniel in 1995, NCA's Presidential Award for Contribution to the Black Caucus in 1997, and delivery of a Baldwin-Wallace College Marting Endowed Lecture in 1998.

Since the publication of We Fish, the Journey to Fatherhood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003), a memoir he coauthored with his son, Omari, Daniel has gained national acclaim and media attention as a writer. "[A] fascinating and selective autobiography that focuses on a father-son relationship over three generations," wrote Robert L. Tener in the Summer-Fall 2003 issue of African American Review, calling the book "wonderful" and "an excellent and delightful autobiography, a book any man, white or black, who is concerned about being a father and who likes to fish, write poetry, or hunt could learn from. Like Langston Hughes' The Big Sea, Dr. Daniel's book captures one with its humor, honesty, and depth of understanding."

Daniel's TV appearances include a feature segment with his son discussing We Fish on the Spike TV network program "True Dads with Bruce Willis" and an interview segment on ABC-TV's "20 / 20" with his wife, Jerlean E. Daniel (B.A. '64, M.S. '72, Ph.D. '75), former Pitt associate professor and chair in the Department of Psychology in Education in the School of Education, who is executive deputy director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children in Washington, D.C. The Daniels were interviewed on "20/20" in the context of a story that explored the bias that job applicants with "Black-sounding" names face from prospective employers; they discussed the findings of a names study they did involving 4- and 5-year-old children.

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7/27/05/tmw