The Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors delivered a welcome surprise this week with the hiring of a new system president paired with a reorganization that stands to make the delivery of education by the system’s institutions more relevant and vital to improving the state’s quality of life.
The Board hired McNeese State University’s current president Wade Rousse to lead the system. But instead of also making him chancellor of the Baton Rouge campus additionally, it hired a late applicant, University of Alabama Provost James Dalton, to serve as LSUA&M’s leader, returning the governance structure to what it had been a dozen years ago.
Perhaps there was a plan beyond what appears to be a last-minute decision to spit the jobs had they once had been. It isn’t unusual for a search firm to solicit candidates, but apparently after the deadline had closed when Dalton wasn’t even initially a semi-finalist for the combined post is an atypical process. Regardless of the provenance, it’s a wise move.
Combining the positions forced its holder to wear two hats that made more difficult doing the job of looking out for the system and running its largest institution. System interests, particularly where they involved the other regional universities and professional schools outside of Baton Rouge, became conflated with if not threatened to become subordinated to LSU’s. What apparently will transpire when the Board next meets will be changes to put in the president’s hands the tasks of governance and external relations, including with the state and federal governments and leave academic matters for LSU with the chancellor, producing the optimal division of labor.
The two men also bring good skill sets to their jobs. Rousse has a record of success in university administration, especially in external matters, but also experience in the private sector (and his having a degree from the University of New Orleans doubtlessly will aid in reintegrating the school into the LSU System as it suffers from a steep enrollment decline). Dalton also has a private sector track record but with a more traditional academic career path that should suit him in running a large research institution. Their lengthy time outside of the bubble of academia should serve them well in greater ability to realign the academy as objects useful in the public sphere.
Contrast this with the former occupant of both jobs, William Tate IV, now leading the Rutgers University system. Tate lacked meaningful real world experience and was entirely a creature of academia and all too comfortable in its echo chamber that increasingly has caused a disconnect with its thinking and activities compared to what actually goes on in the world, but he also was politically astute enough to understand this and while encouraging it from the inside didn’t advertise it to the outside world.
That kind of leadership is what has produced a steady decline in the American public’s confidence of higher education where now roughly thirds have high, little, or no confidence in it, whereas a decade ago well over half had high confidence, and where 70 percent of Americans think higher education generally is going in the wrong direction (a figure even higher among those with a four-year college degree). Barely half believe it is preparing students for well-paying jobs in today’s economy and not even half consider it is developing students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and just under half say it is doing a fair or poor job exposing students to a wide range of opinions and viewpoints. And a similar underwater share say colleges and universities providing students opportunities to express their own opinions and viewpoints.
Reversing the growing disdain and outright indifference to higher education from increasing swaths of the public see it escaping more to orthodox faddism than promoting genuine learning and inquiry relevant to the human condition has become more important than ever, and the Board is to be commended for putting individuals in place poised to try to accomplish that.
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