Tag Archives: president

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Higher education’s endangered values

I have often been critical of college presidents not standing up for political issues that directly impact our institutions. As waves of protests and condemnations of the executive order took hold over the weekend, another event occurred. College presidents seeing the order as a direct assault on the values of higher education started speaking up. One after another, they condemned the President’s action. Rather than sharing my thoughts, I want to take the opportunity to share the unanimous voices of higher education’s leaders standing up to an attack on the values we hold dear- both as higher education and as a country. The sheer number of responses shows just how united American higher education is in fighting this attack on our values.

Credit: Dallas Observer/Matthew Martinez
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Dear Governing Boards, stop rigging searches when hiring politicians as university president

We don’t talk enough in higher education about the damage that governing boards can do to an institution. Trustees have a vital role to play in supporting and leading colleges, but they can make critical decisions that fundamentally undermine the institution they are to guide. The most important role for a governing board is the selection and supervision of the president. In today’s post, I want to make the case that boards have to stop rigging searches when hiring politician as university president.

Kennesaw State President Sam Olens. Photo credit: Marietta Daily Journal

According to the best data currently available from the American Council on Education, 2% of presidents come from the ranks of elected or appointed government officials.

This is a relatively small number, but I suspect when the new data comes out the trend will have increased at least some (the current data is from 2011).

It is easy to understand why governing boards want to look at nontraditional candidates in general and government officials in particular. 

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Another university president gets fired

Baylor, Ken Starr, and a presidency derailed

The situation at Baylor University in recent months is disturbing on many levels. The university president has been fired. A winning football coach is gone as well. Too many women have faced sexual assault and the university failed to act. Beyond the horrible facts of what happened at Baylor, I see a broader trend at work here. In today’s post, I want to share a column published in TribTalk, a publication from the Texas Tribune. My research assistant, Molly Ellis, and I discuss Baylor and our research into why university presidents get fired.

Photo by Callie Richmond
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Obama on higher eduction and anti-intellectualism

It is graduation season which means politicians hitting the trail giving commencement addresses. Most of these aren’t particularly interesting and are often quite stupefying.  I thought President Obama’s speech at Rutgers University was an exception to this rule. I’ve been thinking a great deal about anti-intellectualism in our country and thought that the President addressed the issue quite well.  So for today’s post, I want to share a few key sections from his speech that I think should inspire and convict those of us working in the inherently intellectual business of higher education.

Photo credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP
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Mount St. Mary’s president should be fired

Another day, another crisis in shared governance. This time the crisis has roiled Mount St. Mary’s University, a small private, liberal arts, Catholic university in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Mount St. Mary’s hired Simon Newman, a former private equity director, as president in December, 2014. He had no experience in higher education but at the time of his hiring said his career gave him experience in fundraising, marketing, and strategic planning. In recent days, the campus has erupted in controversy with a plan to weed out likely to fail students, firing faculty critics, and forcing the resignation of the provost. There is only one appropriate conclusion to this episode, Mount St. Mary’s president should be fired.

Photo credit: Mount St. Mary’s

It is attractive to small universities that struggle financially to recruit a powerful business executive with a history of raising money. After all, the institution desperately needs fiscal stability. However, especially at small universities, presidents must be able to successfully navigate the faculty and academic responsibilities of the institution.

Clearly, Mr. Newman has failed on this front.

If I served as one of the university’s trustees, I would immediately move to fire Simon Newman and for cause.