PHILADELPHIA -- Vincent Price has been named associate provost for faculty affairs at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is the Steven H. Chaffee Professor of Communication and Political Science at Penn's Annenberg School for Communication and will assume his new position on July 1.

Price will be responsible for the overall management of the academic personnel process, including recruitment, retention and retirement; appointments and promotions; enhancement of faculty diversity; and resolution of individual faculty issues, including grievances.

Offices which will report to him are the Office of the Chaplain, Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, Institute for Contemporary Art, Office of the Curator and Arthur Ross Gallery.  In addition, he will work closely with the University Ombudsman and the Affirmative Action Office.

"Faculty recruitment, retention and diversity are among our highest priorities at Penn," Provost Ronald J. Daniels said.  "We are seeking to create a climate that is welcoming, inspiring and conducive to our faculty's professional growth and advancement.

"Vince will be a wonderful partner in this endeavor.  His experience -- as chair of Penn's Faculty Senate and chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan -- makes him distinctly qualified to oversee the office of faculty affairs."

Price's research examines mass communication and public opinion, social influence processes and political communication, including the ways in which media frame issues.  He has been editor of the flagship journal Public Opinion Quarterly, and his pioneering book "Public Opinion" (Sage 1992) has been published in five languages.

He earned a Ph.D. in communications from Stanford University in 1987 and a B.A. in English from Santa Clara University in 1979.

Price will succeed the current deputy provost, Janice Bellace, the Samuel A. Blank Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and professor of management at the Wharton School.