Faculty Should Have Had Input on NU Presidency
What kind of president will the University of Nebraska get in Admiral Ted Carter?
Will he be a great academic leader who inspires teachers in every discipline across the huge diversity which NU has become?
Will he be an outstanding fundraiser who convinces the usually stingy Unicameral to see the wisdom of competitive dollars to attract and keep world-class scholars working in 21st century classrooms and labs? And will he tirelessly seek to empty the wallets of donors of every stripe, from Wall Street tycoons to the modest givers who realize that just a few more bucks will help NU thrive?
Will Admiral Carter be a transparent collaborator with the thousands of women and men who teach on every campus?
I wish the new leader of Nebraska’s university system great success in a job which didn’t even exist when I first enrolled 65 years ago. Since 1970, when the system presidency was created, most top guns were short terms, like Hank Bounds who lasted five years. L. Dennis Smith, who served for 10 years, was mostly unknown to the vast majority of Nebraskans.
University leaders have to be business-smart, education-savvy and great communicators.
In my life, I have witnessed the truly great, such as Robert Maynard Hutchins, who began at age 30, and led the University of Chicago to become world class.
Here in Nebraska, the legendary Reuben Gustafson led the school just after World War II, when veterans jammed the campus and innovation was a must. This giant built a truly great university in the atomic infancy of the nation and did it while winning the respect of the entire college community.
My clear bias is that the leadership should have given a full voice and participation to the faculty in choosing a new president. After all, as Prof. David Truman is reported to have said to General Eisenhower when Ike became leader of Columbia University, “General, the faculty is the university!”
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