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Posted 2/27/98
CLEVELAND-Agnar Pytte, who has guided Case Western Reserve University as its president since July 1987, has announced that he plans to retire, effective June 30, 1999. Pytte's 12-year term will be the longest of any president since the 1967 federation that created CWRU.
He announced his resignation in a brief note to members of the University's Board of Trustees. "CWRU has an exceptionally strong faculty, a dedicated and able staff, excellent students, and a great future," Pytte wrote. "It has been a privilege to lead this great university during an exciting period of growth and development, and I want to thank you for your support, your guidance and your friendship. I look forward to our continued partnership over the next sixteen months."
The Board of Trustees, chaired by John F. Lewis, is responsible for appointing the president, including leading the search for Pytte's successor. The trustees are expected to announce arrangements for a search in the coming weeks.
CWRU's Board of Trustees named Pytte to the presidency in March 1987, concluding a national search that encompassed review of more than 200 candidates. His appointment was effective July 1, 1987.
Since taking the CWRU helm a decade ago, Pytte has focused on strengthening teaching and research programs, recruiting top students and faculty, enhancing student life, and improving the facilities and grounds of the campus.
Under Pytte's leadership, CWRU's enrollment has risen from 8,257 in 1987-88 to 9,908 this fall. During that period, the size of the undergraduate freshman class has increased from 508 to 739.
Pytte led a five-year fund-raising campaign that culminated in 1994 with $416.5 million in gifts to the University -- far surpassing the $350 million goal. These gifts have supported endowment, campus improvements, and continuing programs.
During Pytte's tenure, the size of CWRU's endowment (including funds held by others) has risen from $458 million to $1.16 billion.
In the past decade, CWRU's research support has grown from $81.7 million in 1987-88 to nearly $200 million last year. The amount of research space on campus has expanded from 493,300 square feet to 855,000 square feet.
CWRU's annual budget is $411.2 million for the 1997-98 academic year.
Under Pytte's leadership, the University has built CWRUnet, designed to be the most advanced all-fiber-optic computing and communication network on any U.S. campus, to provide an electronic learning environment for students, faculty, and staff.
The president's efforts to improve the campus took another major stride forward in 1996 with the opening of the $29.5 million Kelvin Smith Library. CWRU developed its "library of the future" as one of the capstone projects of the University's Campus Master Plan adopted in 1988.
Pytte called for developing a campus master plan -- the first at CWRU in 30 years -- soon after his arrival. The master plan helped fuel CWRU's largest building boom in decades.
In addition to the new library, facilities constructed thus far under the master plan were a new home for the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences; the Kent Hale Smith Engineering and Science Building; the Richard F. Celeste Biomedical Research Building; an addition to the School of Law's Gund Hall; the George S. Dively Building; the Veale Convocation, Athletic, and Recreation Center; and the parking garages on Adelbert Road and underground at Severance Hall.
Work is under way on a $26 million project to create the Center for Science Education and Research, consolidating and expanding space available for research and teaching laboratories for the chemistry and biology departments. Key funding sources are a $12 million challenge grant from the 1525 Foundation, a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, and a $1 million award from the Ohio Board of Regents.
Pytte came to CWRU from Dartmouth College, where he served as provost from 1982-87. He joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1957 as instructor, becoming professor in 1967. He was Dartmouth's chairman of physics and astronomy from 1971-75 and associate dean of the faculty for the sciences and dean of graduate studies from 1975-82.
Born in Norway in 1932 and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, Pytte came to this country to attend Phillips Exeter Academy. He received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1953, and his A.M. in 1954 and Ph.D. in 1958 from Harvard University.
Pytte's specializations are theoretical plasma physics and nuclear fusion. He co-authored the textbook The Structure of Matter and has published extensively on theoretical physics.
He is active in a number of civic, educational, and government groups, including the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, Cleveland Tomorrow's Technology Leadership Council, the Musical Arts Association (the parent organization for the Cleveland Orchestra), University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Ohio Science and Technology Council. He currently serves as a member of the executive committee of the Association of American Universities.
Pytte, 65, serves on the boards of directors of the Sherman Fairchild Foundation Inc., the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and the A.O. Smith Corporation.
CWRU is the largest private research university in Ohio. The University has 1,949 full-time faculty, more than 2,500 full-time staff members, and more than 90,000 living alumni. CWRU enrolls more than 9,900 students from all 50 states and more than 80 nations. CWRU's major academic divisions are the College of Arts and Sciences, Case School of Engineering, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, School of Dentistry, School of Graduate Studies, School of Law, Weatherhead School of Management, School of Medicine, and Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
CWRU ranks 12th among the nation's private research universities in federal awards to support research and development last year. It received more than $197 million from government, industry, and other private sources for research and sponsored projects.
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