What a fiasco

by | May 21, 2015 | Editor's Blog, Education | 13 comments

First the UNC Board of Governors couldn’t tell us why they fired UNC President Tom Ross. Now, they don’t even know what they want in a replacement. That’s what came out of a meeting of a BOG committee charged with finding Ross’ successor.

As Board Chair John Fennebresque put it:

“We want a change agent, but we don’t know the specifics of what we want to change. Do I think the board ought to get together and be able to talk back and forth about what they’re looking for? Yes. Do I think there will be a precise itemization of the factors or traits of a new leader or a new job description coming out of that? Probably not.”

Rarely have we seen a public official admit so blatantly that the body he runs has no idea what they are doing. I can’t believe this is going to help the recruitment process. As one search consultant said, “Folks from Boston to Berkeley kept saying, ‘Jerry, what’s going on in North Carolina?’ It doesn’t feel right to people afar when they look at what we’re doing here.” Well, it doesn’t feel right to a lot of us who are watching up close.

All of the consultants agreed that the UNC system needs a leader who is exceptional and “nontraditional.” But why would somebody exceptional come to an institution that just fired a highly respected president for no reason and take a job with no clear expectations? What a fiasco.

John Fennebresque may love the university, as he said in his N&O profile last weekend, but he has no business running the UNC Board of Governors. And he certainly should not be talking to the press.

13 Comments

  1. Lan Sluder

    This whole situation almost makes me physically ill and definitely raises my blood pressure. The Republican’ts take a university system that for a long time has been ranked among the top five public systems in the country and in just a couple of years have made great strides in destroying it. Now they’re trying to make it the laughing stock of academia.

  2. Mary Newsom

    Oops. Typo. John not Jihn.

  3. Mary Newsom

    Just a quick little correction – the profile of Jihn Fennebresque was by the excellent Pam Kelley of the Charlotte Observer, who while she covered higher education (she hasn’t in recent years) regularly won awards for her astute coverage.

  4. Amy Womble

    The BOG has North Carolina’s crown jewels in its hands. This situation keeps me awake at night ):

  5. Vicki Boyer

    They want someone just like Tom Ross, but a Republican. If they can’t find ‘someone’ by Janurary, they’ll fall back to Art Pope….

  6. Naomi Lambert

    In addition to being inarticulate and hopeless with the press, I question how realistic Fennebresque’s timeline is for appointment of a new President by January. They don’t have a job description and they are required to do a lot of public consultation. Oh, and good people usually have contractual notice periods. It really makes me suspect they already have someone.

  7. Someone from Main Street

    How is it that such an inarticulate man is the head of the BOG? Fennebresque’s press conference after the firing of Ross was a case study in how NOT to conduct yourself in front of the press. Now he’s admitting he has no idea what the BOG is looking for in a new president.

    If they want a change agent – what needs to be changed within UNC system? Abolition of tenure? The public firing of Gene Nichols? Greater reliance on contingent faculty with two-semester contracts? Which universities will be shuttered? What other centers will be closed? How else can the new president further destroy a system NCGOP is intent on wrecking?

    In the linked article, Bill Funk’s comment was quite interesting.

    “Search consultant Bill Funk said he withdrew from a search at Florida State University recently because the candidate was a predetermined political pick.

    ‘I really wanted to do an honest search,’ he said.”

    Here’s to hoping that’s not code for the fact that the board has already selected Art Pope in advance of the search… Perhaps they don’t need a job description, or a goal for the search – because they’ve already got their guy picked and ready to go?

    Recent articles noted that Tom Ross was given a standing ovation when he installed the new chancellor at Appalachian State – with governor and some BOG members in attendance. Faculty not happy to see him go.

  8. lnackman

    Perhaps they know what they want but can’t say it in public because it would be so unacceptable to so many people.

    • Lex

      ^^^ And we have a winner!

  9. larry

    Maybe Pope and Kochs Americans for Prosperity hasn’t let then know yet.

  10. Apply Liberally

    ““We want a change agent, but we don’t know the specifics of what we want to change. Do I think the board ought to get together and be able to talk back and forth about what they’re looking for? Yes. Do I think there will be a precise itemization of the factors or traits of a new leader or a new job description coming out of that? Probably not.”

    They want a “change agent” but aren’t able to describe what they want changed? They want to attract the very best presidential candidates, but feel and say they can’t write an accurate, insightful and guiding position description?

    Are John F. and his cabal of small thinkers serious? If you can’t be explicit in a job description, you can’t attract anybody truly good, and, just as importantly, you can’t ultimately measure or assess the hiree’s performance. Any Business Management 101 student knows this!

    How John F. is a leader at two investment banking firms is beyond me.

    • Leake Little

      Investment banking firms are notoriously ill-managed…

  11. Nancy Rorie

    The BOG just didn’t want Tom Ross, a Democrat, as president of the system, so they fired him. Period. With that action, and now with their inability to define what they want in the new president, they have proven themselves to be the incompetent fools the public thought they were all along.

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