Date: 12/07/2009

San José State University Selects Veteran Professor, Dean, Administrator

Contact:
Pat Lopes Harris, SJSU Media Relations, 408-924-1748

SAN JOSÉ, Calif., -- San José State President Jon Whitmore has appointed Dr. Gerry Selter, a veteran academic and administrator with over four decades of service to SJSU, as the next provost and vice president for academic affairs. Selter has served in this role on an interim basis since July 2009, while the university conducted a national search to replace retired Provost Carmen Sigler.

"On behalf of the university community, I would like to thank the search committee and everyone who participated in the process," Whitmore said. "We would also like to extend our gratitude to the two outstanding candidates who visited campus earlier this term to meet our community and share their life's work with us.

"Our budgetary challenges are leading to unprecedented change, change that has and will continue to touch everyone here. With this in mind, our thoughts turned to our need for a steady hand, someone who has earned the respect of faculty, staff and students campuswide. Furthermore, Dr. Selter has an understanding of San José State that can only come from significant experience working with our unique challenges and opportunities.

"Although Dr. Selter initially committed to serve on an interim basis only, we feel very fortunate that he has agreed to stay on to lend us his wisdom and good judgment as we navigate through the coming years."

Selter joined San José State in fall 1968 to teach organic chemistry. After serving briefly as acting chemistry department chair, he became interim associate dean, then interim dean in the College of Science. In 1994, he was appointed dean, a position he held for 11 years. Selter joined the Office of the President in January 2005, serving as executive assistant to the president under retired President Don W. Kassing and current President Jon Whitmore.

The provost oversees SJSU's 2,000 faculty members, seven colleges (Applied Sciences and Arts, Business, Education, Engineering, Humanities and the Arts, Science, and Social Sciences), the university library, and administrative offices such as Undergraduate Studies, Graduate Studies and Research, International and Extended Studies, Institutional Research, Faculty Affairs, Academic Technology, and the SJSU Research Foundation.

Download a print-quality image of Selter.

Read more on the Office of the Provost.

San José State -- Silicon Valley's largest institution of higher learning with 30,000 students and 5,700 employees -- is part of the California State University system. SJSU's 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation's 10th largest city.