This from Tom Eblen at H-L:
A job ad for the next UK president
Job Description: overworked, underpaid
Lee T. Todd Jr.'s decision to retire as president of the University of Kentucky in June has me thinking about what the advertisement seeking his successor should say.
Not what it will say, but what it should say.Wanted: University of Kentucky president. As UK's 12th chief executive since 1869, you will be taking on perhaps the toughest job in Kentucky. It pays about a half-million dollars a year, but you could get more money for less work at another state's flagship university.
By the way, your salary will pale in comparison to the millions that go to your head basketball and football coaches. Don't expect any sympathy from the faculty and staff, who are generally underpaid and haven't received a raise lately. Or students and their parents, who have seen tuition double in recent years.
There is a lot right with UK. The university is more open, collaborative and entrepreneurial than it used to be. Enrollment, student performance, research and diversity are growing, and the university is producing some outstanding graduates, including doctors, engineers, architects, diplomats, business people and, believe it or not, world-class opera singers.
You will be succeeding Lee Todd, a passionate, energetic and visionary leader ...
2 comments:
Whenever I think about Lee Todd's Top 20 plan for UK, I'm reminded of the song "Beautiful Dreamer."
To Lee Todd I offer this poem by John Greenleaf Whittier lifted from an epitaph at Lexington Cemetery:
"For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these "What Might Have Been!"
For UK to become a top 20 institution, the next president must come from outside of Kentucky.
The time has come for the vision of a Frank McVey, who fought for academic freedom in the aftermayj of the Scopes trial, the restructuring of a John Oswald with his emphasis on teh California plan and rotating department chairs, and the courage of a David Roselle, who distanced himself from racist board members like Albert Chandler while attempting to clean up the athletic program.
The time for change at UK is now. I hope the Board of Trustees recognizes this....
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