Working With Others

About a month ago, I commented on the University of Minnesota’s hiring a new head football coach without any previous head coaching experience (The Hiring of a CEO , That is Head Coach). On Saturday, February 17, 2007, the Regents of the University of New Mexico named current Oklahoma State University president David Schmidly as the university’s next president. Of the five finalists , all of whom were qualified to lead this university , Schmidly had the most experience and the Regents picked him. In short, The University of New Mexico hired on the basis of experience rather than potential. Before his tenure at Oklahoma State, Schmidly had served as president at Texas Tech University as well. The last president that the UNM Regents hired had not held any university-level leadership roles; furthermore he lacked a track record of academic scholarship , which is usually a prerequisite for high-level administrative positions in academia. That president and the university parted ways over a year ago. So it is not surprising that this time the Regents went for the person with the most experience.

Leading a major state university is a challenging endeavor unlike leading any other business organization. I have heard a university described as a confederation of faculty loosely held together by a series of parking lots. And I have heard the act of leading a university is more akin to herding cats. As a president of a state university, one has to manage the relationship with numerous constituencies including the faculty, the regents or trustees, the legislature, alumni, and the various accrediting bodies that give the university the ability to grant degrees. Then there is the matter of the financial integrity of the place, the facilities, the athletic programs and so on. This is one job where experience does count and a track record of accomplishments is critically important.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 10:03 am and is filed under Jobs and Careers, Leadership, Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.