After serving as faculty chairman in 1958, he was named dean in 1960, vice president in 1969 and president in 1970.

And although the university's president is a Jesuit, the chairman of the board, the chairwoman of the theology department and the faculty chairman are not even Catholics.

Sanford took on the position of faculty chairman of athletics in 1907 and performed those duties until his ascendancy to the UGA presidency in 1932.

Payne was the faculty chairman of athletics for Georgia from 1934 until 1943.

Now his duties at the company and the school, where he is faculty chairman, put him under similar pressure.

From 1992 to 2002 Mr. Bloomfield was faculty chairman of the Taubman Institute.

The board of directors decided that the school, known as Texas AMC, needed to be run by an independent administrative chief rather than the faculty chairman.

But for Peter Martins, the ballet school's artistic director and faculty chairman, it is the space that counts.

Mr. Fleisher's move follows that of the pianist Gilbert Kalish, who served on the faculty for nearly 28 years, 12 of them as faculty chairman.

For many years he served as faculty chairman of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony's summer home.