Spring Break
Curators appoint businessman to lead UM System
Elyssa Brogdon
Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: News
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"The Curators made it pretty clear their desire to find someone with a background coming directly from business," Forsee said.
While the Curators believe someone with a business background is needed to fill the presidential position, UMKC professor emeriti of foreign languages and literature Patricia Brodsky disagreed.
"I have stated publicly that I thought it was a very bad idea to seek someone with a primarily business background to lead an academic, intellectual institution," Brodsky said. "…I know very little about him [Forsee] personally - only the public facts about his failed leadership at Sprint. … The fact that he wasn't even successful at that doesn't bode well for the future of the university."
Despite his lack of academic experience, Forsee feels there must be a compromise.
"I think that in a grand, perfect world you'd have someone that knew about everything," Forsee said. "[Someone] that knew what I've developed in 35 years of business, hopefully acumen and leadership skills, and at the same time would have a deep understanding of the academic world and academic challenges. But the world is not perfect; there's always trade-offs to make."
And though the world may not be perfect, Forsee is not alone. He has chancellors.
Forsee plans to rely on the four chancellors, who have academic backgrounds, so he can focus on the long-term future of the entire UM system.
Some already see the UM system more as a company, according to Steve Driever, Ph. D., professor of geosciences and vice chair of UMKC Faculty Senate.
"People say that the UM system not being a campus in itself but overseeing four campuses has more to do with business matters than academic matters," Driever said.
Forsee discussed several instances when the business world and the academic world are parallel.
"In a business world there are commonalities whether you compare customers of any company to students or you compare faculty with the associates of the company who are trying to serve the customer or students," Forsee said. "I think that, and I'm sure the trustees hope that a lot of the parallels and similarities where the business skills I've developed, can in fact translate."
While some question Forsee's ability, others criticize the selection process.
"I think the selection process should be much more open," Driever said.
Faculty and staff didn't know who or how many candidates there were, according to Driever. The responsibility was left to the Board of Curators and a presidential search advisory committee, which consisted of 19 members from the four campuses.
"I think that they [the presidential search advisory committee] had almost no power at all," Driever said. "They were just allowed to interview people presented to them by the selection committee [The Board of Curators]."
Forsee will officially take office as president of the UM system on Feb. 18, 2008.
ebrogdon@unews.com
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