Spring Break
UM chooses a sad and sorry path
Derek Simons
Issue date: 11/26/07 Section: Forum
If you're a fan of quality higher education, last week was not one for rejoicing. Rumors ran rampant as Gary Forsee's name popped up everywhere in the news. It seems he is likely to be the next University of Missouri (UM) president.
As chairman, president and chief executive officer of Sprint Nextel Corp., he may or may not have been good at his job. I can't judge that. Those who could forced him to resign Oct. 8. So now he's considered the front-runner for running the four campuses in the UM System?
The logic escapes me.
For centuries, professors and administrators have done battle over how to run universities.
I understand universities are not just intellectual exercises. Balance sheets need to look decent, teachers need to be paid and classrooms need to be heated. This is why we have administrators. And if we're short on financial advice, we also have boards of trustees chock full of rich, white businessmen. But when it comes to the very top job, we need to think about the basic purpose of existence of these institutions, their raison d'être.
Do we want a president who thinks in terms of the shareholders on Wall Street, or someone who is concerned with, and understands, what quality higher education truly means?
Back in January, the UM Board of Curators hired the executive search firm Baker-Parker Inc. to find suitable candidates. This was at a cost of $125,000 plus expenses, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. (Baker-Parker subsequently split into two separate firms - we got the Baker & Associates half.)
I attended a presidential search forum in March at UMKC. Jerry Baker was there, as were UM Board of Curators Chair Don Walsworth and Curator Warren K. Erdman. Baker proudly declared the firm was looking at high-profile candidates from all over the world, and furthermore, his firm had one of the best hiring rates in the nation for minority candidates.
Baker laid out the instructions the curators had given him. Re-reading his quotes now almost makes me laugh.
As chairman, president and chief executive officer of Sprint Nextel Corp., he may or may not have been good at his job. I can't judge that. Those who could forced him to resign Oct. 8. So now he's considered the front-runner for running the four campuses in the UM System?
The logic escapes me.
For centuries, professors and administrators have done battle over how to run universities.
I understand universities are not just intellectual exercises. Balance sheets need to look decent, teachers need to be paid and classrooms need to be heated. This is why we have administrators. And if we're short on financial advice, we also have boards of trustees chock full of rich, white businessmen. But when it comes to the very top job, we need to think about the basic purpose of existence of these institutions, their raison d'être.
Do we want a president who thinks in terms of the shareholders on Wall Street, or someone who is concerned with, and understands, what quality higher education truly means?
Back in January, the UM Board of Curators hired the executive search firm Baker-Parker Inc. to find suitable candidates. This was at a cost of $125,000 plus expenses, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. (Baker-Parker subsequently split into two separate firms - we got the Baker & Associates half.)
I attended a presidential search forum in March at UMKC. Jerry Baker was there, as were UM Board of Curators Chair Don Walsworth and Curator Warren K. Erdman. Baker proudly declared the firm was looking at high-profile candidates from all over the world, and furthermore, his firm had one of the best hiring rates in the nation for minority candidates.
Baker laid out the instructions the curators had given him. Re-reading his quotes now almost makes me laugh.
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