3rd tier, agéd Presbyterian elder & Sloan-clone the best for BU?
Baylor, with the exception of recurrent shenanegans from some members of the BOR, has been at relative peace and calm this semester under an interim with a servant-leadership style and complete mastery of the Baylor situation. Faculty and students and administrators have been able to focus on their work and on getting Baylor into on-going equilibrium.
Moving forward in clear-headed peace and productivity is obviously not good enough for those members of the BOR.
And this choice is obviously not good enough for Baylor.
Lilley, who has some pluses and three degrees from Baylor and was honored as a Distinguished Alumni, and has major minuses. He's a High Elder in the Presbyterian Church, was Dean and Provost of a liberal arts college for over 20 years and has been at the 3rd tier UN-Reno for five years. He's got nothing in scholarly work or teaching, but lots to his credit on stomping on constituencies (see below).
The parallel to the Campus Life Survey at UNR came out a lot like Baylor's—a significant percentage not participating because of fear of retribution and a high level of dissatisfaction.
He appears to be known in Reno for a heavy-handed management style, his inability to get along with faculty, and running rough-shod over university constituencies.
2. If he comes to Baylor—and why not, surely the money is good—Lilley will arrive a highly suspect unknown to the Baylor constituencies and he will be a long way from finding getting a mastery of the situation.
An extensive and painful learning curve and the expectation of collateral damage is not the best plan for Baylor now. Baylor does not have that must room to wiggle and can't afford to lose much more. Baylor does not need a new president on these terms.
If the BOR makes this appointment, their lack of insight, foresight, and fiduciary irresponsibility for Baylor will have hit the bottom.
3. As far as his official bio goes, he seems to have absolutely nothing academic or administrative to recommend him to a troubled university like Baylor. He has dismantled academic units without regard to constituents, according to news stories. http://www.csuohio.edu/clevelandstat...ghlights9.html
(See the next post for a URL that you have to register to see.)
His bio includes this:
"Since his undergraduate days, Dr. Lilley has been included in several national and international honorary lists including Who's Who in America. He is a member of several national organizations and has served on the board of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities." (wow.)
Note that he was Dean and later provost at Penn State Erie, The Berhend College, aka Behrend, for 20 years, where the library is named for him. He left there after over 20 years to move about 1500 miles to the West.
Oh, and heads up Books and Geeks, the Sloanies better look to their pet, non-paying programs—money was Lilley's excuse for dismantling colleges and programs at Reno. I'm no fan of the waste and lack of benefit in those programs, so this is my "plus" for Lilley's track record.
4. And what of those charged with making these decisions for Baylor?
Can no one on the all-regent Search Committee do a 'google' search?
Can anyone read between the lines?
Does no one there know a Sloan-clone—even an unattractive, older autocratic-style leader (rather than a younger, rangy one)—when they see him?
This choice brings far too many questions and negatives to the table to inspire confidence in the constituencies or to bring anything but immediate unhappiness and loss of confidence on campus. Lilley brings a legacy of a lack of respect for the principles of a liberal arts education at Reno, imo, and the same lack of respect for the faculty.
That should please certain regents all the way to Dallas and West Texas.
A full Sloanie board in June could have hardly done worse if this is the pick.
5. There is no comparision between Lilley's potential to do Baylor good, short and long term, and that of Underwood.
Underwood is ahead by a vast distance of knowledge of Baylor. He is also a Baptist and a known quantity. Lilley will probably make a great impression on the Bush Library people.
Why can't Baylor attract a president who is known to the Baylor constituencies, who will have little-or-no learning curve when he (or she) takes office, and who comes to Baylor from a successful tenure of substantial length at one of the better universities in the US—if not from the ranks at Baylor? Clearly, there are those on campus who could fill this position ably. Why does the BOR look to put the campus into unrest and imbalance again, damn the cost to Baylor?
The nature of this move is to take Baylor further off balance. Friday announcements indicate a fore-knowledge of that.
Maybe certain regents still want Baylor for their own narrow agenda. No surprise there. No 'maybe.' Anybody But Underwood / Get Underwood rides again.
Lilley's raise and contract renewal undeserved
By: Ti Torres
Issue date: 4/26/05 Section: Perspectives
'On April 15 the Board of Regents renewed President John Lilley's contract for four more years and upped his salary - by a lot.
The regents increased Lilley's base salary by $14,000. This increase does not include the yearly benefits of a $90,000 allocation that Lilley received from the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation. An annual $8,000 car allowance, $18,000 housing allowance and $5,000 host account are also part of his contract.
This brings Lilley to an all-inclusive annual salary and benefits package of $348,000.
The regents also granted Lilley tenure.
In the past four years that I have attended UNR, I have seen little reason that this university president should receive another term, much less a raise. Much less a $104,000 raise.
In a letter last week to the UNR campus, Lilley expressed his gratitude, saying "together we have covered a lot of territory."
Among the achievements Lilley notes are "exciting new academic programs designed to solve real problems (and) the largest fundraising year in our history, $32 million."
But Lilley left out quite a bit of territory.
I don't recall any major improvements to the quality of my education due to the $32 million that Lilley raised. New academic programs at the university haven't excited me.
I have, however, been concerned about the issues of faculty morale, allegations of animal abuse and intimidation of students and faculty alike. The discovery of hidden cameras in the Fleischmann Agriculture building, as well as a hierarchy concerned with little more than keeping the president at the top, shouldn't exist in an academic environment.
I am not alone in my concerns about what Lilley brought to the university and has now been given another four years of tyranny.
The Reno Gazette-Journal quoted Regent Jill Derby as saying that Lilley's recent evaluation leads her to believe that there is "a lack of faculty support, troubled legislative relations and a very troubling, ongoing perception of difficulties relating to many women in leadership positions."
In addition to the comments by Derby, an anonymous letter addressed to system chancellor Jim Rogers and signed by a faculty member brought up problems with Lilley.
In this letter, the faculty member writes, "...there has been an unprecedented proliferation of administrative positions...to individuals...who demonstrate a willingness to support President Lilley's policies and causes without question or justification."
Lilley's gluttony and progress in the past four years are as deceptive as the camera he approved in Fleischmann Agriculture.
The raise and the renewal of the contract of a president who has created more problems than he has helped exemplifies how out of touch the state's academic leaders truly are. When will the brass start listening to the cries of those students, faculty and staff who are irked by an ineffective president?
(Ti Torres is a columnist for The Nevada Sagebrush.)
what in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?
if this the guy, someone -- likely the whole board -- did not do his homework. his management style sounds like it's one of my way or the highway. does that sound a tad familiar of a certain ex-bu president?
and what's this about the presbyterian angle? what gives there?
you want to give this guy the benefit of the doubt, but baylor's board of rejects has hit new lows --- we're talking united mine workers here, that's how low. how could this guy have possibly been their choice? sounds like he was pretty much run out of reno.
ineptness and incompetence, thy name is baylor's board of rejects, according to the links you posted.
There were four faculty members on the nine-member Advisory Committee that voted unanimously for Lilley. Do they not know how to contact colleagues at UN-R for background on Lilley, or at least call up Google?
Dr. Dianna M. Vitanza
Dr. Lynn Tatum
Dr. Thomas S. Kidd
Dr. Wallace L. Daniel
There's a 25+ year record. God forbid you could read or do research.
I like Underwood and am no fan of Sloan, bit OSO is right. Whomever is selected as President deserves the chance to be a success or a failure before they are simply labeled as one or the other. Now is not the time to start stirring the pot. Let whomever it is make a go of it, good or bad, and then make your judgement.
If we don't all settle down a bit, Baylor runs the risk of becoming even more partisan and ridiculous than it already is.
God forbid you actually hold judgement and give the guy a chance.
Give the guy a chance? Why? What has he done to earn it? This isn't flipping burgers at the in-n-out; this is the presidency of a multi-million dollar institution. We are in a precarious position as it is. This is no time to line up riff-raff and let anyone who wants take a shot at running the show.
Widespread feelings of mistrust amongst faculty and allegations of heavy-handed management don't just appear out of nowhere. Neither do hidden cameras.
With the vote on the president still only a little over 3 months old and the utter lack of concensus on the Board, not to mention the unusual timing of this meeting, one cannot help but see it as a rushed decision. That's the last thing we need now.
Jesus himself would be hard-pressed to gain the support necessary to unite the Baylor family under these circumstances. Based on this guys track record, he ain't no Messiah.
. . . Based on this guys track record, he ain't no Messiah.
Well then, sounds like he might be your guy.
For all you know, this guy COULD be the best thing to ever happen to BU... could be the dream-boy for the cribbers. Who knows? And to think you are calling him riff-raff??
This R&P board is so childish I am going to do my best to not return once the dust settles....
No offense guys, but chill out. Let's see what happens. I really doubt that this is a rushed decision. Just because this board has not been screaming about this candidate for months does not mean that the regents have not been considering him and carefully checking things out. Is it too hard to believe that there may have been a candidate that you did not know about? Look, I was not an Underwood fan originally, but he has done a pretty good job. Hopefully the new guy can do the same, but let's not make up our minds too early!
Has Lilley been president at Tier-1 institutions? Penn St. Erie and Nevada-Reno are, at best, Tier-3 institutions. True, he has a Ph.D. But where are the publications? What are his academic qualifications? You'd think that after our last prez self-published his own dissertation the regents would look closely at credentials. And this guy has had shaky, at best, relations with faculty.
Peeps--Sorry. I wish I could get excited about today's announcement. But I just can't. He's the best BU could get? Wow. We're in worse shape than even I imagined.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsicanaBear
Given the other challenges we face the infighting needs to stop somehow, someway soon. But if I were BAA President I wouldn't subscribe to an unjust peace for the sake of peace.
The day you turned 75 I said that Buddy, my Tom, is going to do some stupid things before I have to send him to the looney bin. You are quickly proving my point. Quit this stupidness now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas_Sowell
"Some of my most vocal critics are people who have done much themselves, and whose contributions to society are much greater than mine."
The BOR should be able to find someone with far better credentials than Lilley's. What happened to the drive to be a "Tier One" institution?
__________________
"In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we ultimately learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished." - Karl Rahner
I like Underwood and am no fan of Sloan, bit OSO is right. Whomever is selected as President deserves the chance to be a success or a failure before they are simply labeled as one or the other. Now is not the time to start stirring the pot. Let whomever it is make a go of it, good or bad, and then make your judgement.
If we don't all settle down a bit, Baylor runs the risk of becoming even more partisan and ridiculous than it already is.
I have to agree with Golem here. I like Underwood a great deal and I was more than tired of Sloan. I have read some things posted here that give me some pause on this guy, but here are the facts:
He's going to be announced president today.
We can either withhold judgment to see what he does in this situation, or we can wring our hands and get all worked up and doom him before he ever sets foot on campus.
I'm afraid that the "we've already decided he is awful" mentality will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. He will fail if everyone decides the worst of him before he ever sets foot in Pat Neff. He may be good, he may be bad, he may merely be somewhere in the middle. But let's wait 'til the guy gets here to decide. I'm not completely sold on him, either, for many of the reasons everyone cites, but I'm willing to see what he is about and what he does.
Even if you think Lilley isn't worthy of your backing, BAYLOR IS, and she deserves the chance to have her new leadership succeed.
I'm not commenting specifically on Lilley one way or another until I have more of a chance to review his record.
In principle, however, I can see a logic for choosing someone with his background:
1. Baylor graduate with several degrees. That's a plus.
2. Experience as a college president and a provost. Also a plus. Doesn't matter if much of that was at a liberal arts college and not a Tier I university. In my opinion, Baylor for undergraduates was always much more like a liberal arts college anyhow. It offered the best of that world (emphasis on teaching, professors for almost every class) with the professional schools of a university.
3. Presbyterian: Maybe the Baptist world is so politically toxic at the moment that one of the only ways to escape being identified with one of the opposing sides is to look beyond the Baptist community. (However, I also thought that you had to be a Baptist to be president of BU. Then again, the regents seem to make up the rules as they go.)
4. Being over 60: Sounds like that means Lilley wouldn't be at BU all that long, maybe 6-8 years. But that's a fairly normal tenure for college presidents, isn't it? In any event, you could make a case that a transitional president isn't such a bad idea (if he's the right person, of course). If Baylor can achieve some healing over the next few years and return to normalcy, then Lilley will have laid the groundwork for someone with really strong qualifications to follow and stay for a long time.
I agree with Webe in lamenting that the BOR seems unable to recognize the value of what Underwood has accomplished in just a few months. I also lament that the Sloanie insurgency (which seems to represent no bigger a percentage of the BU community than the Sunni insurgency in Iraq) seems to have outsize influence on the BOR, and that this influence -- perhaps with agitation by Sloan himself -- effectively created a block against Underwood being considered for the permanent post. (If Underwood goes to Mercer, should that be interpreted as a sign of his disgust with the regents and BU's direction?).
If Lilley is heavyhanded, that's a real problem and perhaps should be a deal breaker. Surely that's not a good fit for BU today. Surely the board would have more brains than that. Then again, the board has given me every reason to be suspicious of almost everything they do. I think there are at least 10 of the regents who do not act in good faith. That's a pretty bad indictment for a Christian school, wouldn't you think? The Sloan people do not think so.
If Lilley is the choice, I hope that one of his conditions for accepting the job is that Sloan immediately resigns as chancellor. Maybe they should even pay him to give up his faculty position and leave town. The guy will be poison to Baylor as long as he's around. I have to think that's one reason why so few qualified people have wanted the job of president. How do you all read Lilley's interest? Is it more the case of "loyal alum returns to help his alma mater?" Or is it that BU is giving him an escape hatch from a troubled situation in Nevada? I can tell you that anyone who has lived in Reno and loves the outdoors would have a hard time adjusting to Waco.
GW -- I am afraid he is the best we can get. Our house is not in order, and that is what is keeping some folks away.
There are a couple of folks on the search committee that I trust, and many on the advisory committee that I trust, and they seem to think the guy is okay. For now, that is enough for me. When I got word of the nominee yesterday, I was underwhelmed, but the more I thought about it, the more I like him. Then just about the time I was going to get four-square behind the guy, I found the Reno Gazette-Journal article and felt "same song, different verse."
I am back to being underwhelmed, but I am hopeful that this afternoon's presser is the next (and hopefully final) step in putting the last 5 years behind us.
And at 65-66 years old, the guy is really not much more than a long interim. The faculty know his history, and I think that most are willing to give him a chance. More importantly, he knows that we know the faculty knows the allegations against him in Reno. Hopefully he has learned from it. He professes strong beliefs in academic freedom. His actions on the job will determine whether or not he gives lip service to it or if he really believes.
I am going with Ronald Reagan on this one -- "Trust [the committees and those regents I know], but verify [sleep with one eye open]."
It is my concern that the current Baylor Board of Regents are making decisions to just make it appear they are fixing problems. I question whether the by-laws change, and the presidential selection, have been scrutinized as much as needed.
4. Being over 60: Sounds like that means Lilley wouldn't be at BU all that long, maybe 6-8 years. But that's a fairly normal tenure for college presidents, isn't it? In any event, you could make a case that a transitional president isn't such a bad idea (if he's the right person, of course). If Baylor can achieve some healing over the next few years and return to normalcy, then Lilley will have laid the groundwork for someone with really strong qualifications to follow and stay for a long time.
the national average for college presidents serving a term is 5 years. the point is, baylor is sliding a slippery slope right now and can't afford another 5-year debacle like sloan produced. to me, even the very hint that there was faculty unrest about the guy should send up dozens of red flags. the hidden camera business -- how paranoid does that sound? even billy bob sloan didn't stoop that low, at least to our knowledge.
surely someone on the bu faculty knows someone at reno who could provide the real skinny on the guy.
Reputation Points: 0
Reputation Points: -3
