Roger Valdez, at Crosscut, has stated my own feelings about last night’s election better than I could. Valdez praises Reaganesque devotion to ” principles, stating them simply and clearly over and over again, recruiting candidates who have an unalloyed belief in those principles, and doing politics in an emotionally intelligent way.”
The charisma question is not just important in Olympia or at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Leadership is important on this campus as well. What is a University if it is not about rational leadership? The UW will not be well served by a President who lacks the skills and personal achievement to represent the academic community that comprise our faculty.
For those of us in volved in politics, the question is, where are our charismatic figures, our Reagans and our Palins? How is it that President Obama, with his academic achievements, a cabinet that includes a Nobel laureate, and obvious intellect can not translate his ideals into political leadership? Where the right hears a well sung country song, the democrats have a cacophony, dozens of voices that vociferously fight for different agendas. The general public can not respond to a cacophony.
Valdez argues that the charisma of Reagan was more important than the poverty of his ideas.
Put another way, can rational policies sell?
The issue of choosing the next UW President is very much the same. The public, including the legislature, will not support the UW’s academic goals no matter how well the Huskies do or how good the next UW President is at raising dollars amongst donors who winter in Palm Springs.
Local politics provide a good example. Dow Constantine and Christine Gregoire are talented administrators. Those skills, however, are of little value in getting public support. Mark Emmert, another talented administrator, also lacked the personal achievement needed to lead the faculty and sell what we offer to the citizens of this State.
Nor, in my opinion, can a public relations expert provide that sort of leadership.
We need a new President with the personal achievement needed to lead the faculty and impress the people of Washington with the importance of the UW as an intellectual resource in a in a world where our competition is not just with Massachusetts and California but Beijing and Tel Aviv.
Who do we have who can influence the Search Committee to find such leadership? The Regents turn to the Faculty Senate for participation in the search. How many of us respect the Senate for its leadership role here? How many of the UW’s prestigious economists, scientists, artists, or writers have ever served (much loess led) the Senate? The only other voice heard from the faculty is the AAUP listserve .. something the Interim President has dismissed as a voice of a few radicals.
The lack of a clear, rational and progressive voice led to the debacle of Nov 2. In the absence of a clear voice from the faculty, I worry about the choice the Regents are making.
Steve Schwartz
Professor of Pathology, UW
Editor, THE-Ave.us