Mandel to step down as provost in July

Temple’s Senior Vice President and Provost Gregory Mandel plans to step down from the position effective July 13, he wrote in a message to the university community Tuesday afternoon. 

Klein College of Media and Communication Dean David Boardman will serve as interim provost, President John Fry wrote in a separate email to the university community. 

“This role has afforded me the opportunity to learn more about the many exceptional things happening at Temple every day, and work on a daily basis with our broad community of remarkable people who move the university forward for the betterment of the world,” Mandel wrote. “It has been a great joy to have colleagues become friends, and students become colleagues.”

Mandel has been at Temple since 2007, becoming a full-time dean from 2017-21. He has been Temple’s provost since 2021. Mandel will be continuing at Temple as a professor in the Beasley School of Law, he wrote in the message.

“In the months since I started as Temple’s president, I have also come to know Greg as a trusted colleague and thoughtful leader,” Fry wrote. “He has made my job easier, and I am truly grateful for his assistance in helping me get acclimated and engaged with our university.”

Boardman will still serve as Klein’s dean, but current senior associate dean Deborah Cai will be named acting dean of day-to-day operations, Fry wrote. Marylouise Esten, Fry’s current chief of staff, will serve as Boardman’s deputy provost in the meantime. 

Boardman has expressed no interest in continuing as the permanent provost and will only serve in the interim position until July 2026, Boardman wrote in an email to the Klein community.

Boardman has served as Klein’s dean since 2013. He has a background in journalism, working at the Seattle Times for thirty years, and as executive editor and senior vice president before he began at Temple. 

“I care deeply about Temple University and have never felt more excited about this institution than I have under President Fry’s brief but impressive tenure,” Boardman wrote. “I want to do all I can to support him and to serve Temple. That sense of duty ultimately led me to say yes.”