From AAUP listserv
Let’s not worry about Mark Emmert’s past or current salary, or that of his successor. Instead, consider the full implications of his continually evasive replies vis a via the desirable attributes of the new UW President.
One can only hope that the Regents will also view the Frontline NCAA video and pause to ponder the so clearly displayed psyche of a man they lauded as an outstanding President. If this reflects the true substance of what is sought in his replacement, the UW will once again be very poorly served.
How could the former Regents have been so duped? Or were they?
So can we request, just one more time, that the Regents trust a group of 15 or so Faculty to read the candidate summary information and to meet for at least several hours with each of the Presidential finalists to see if we concur with the choices?
If not with several finalists, how about such a meeting with THE finalist, BEFORE any Presidential mantle is bestowed?
Will the UW really be served well by a future President who is so insecure concerning his/her credentials and ethics that they’d refuse to meet with a Faculty advisory group prior to a final Regents decision?
The task of selecting an optimal UW President is not easy, and the Regents clearly strive to find an individual they believe is best suited to the many challenges of Presidential leadership.
However, given the track records of their past two Presidential choices, why would the Regents fail to seek Faculty assistance in evaluating their current finalists? Whatever the selection criteria have been, these have simply not worked.
Are the Regents failing to ask all of the relevant questions? Does their evaluation of candidate replies differ from ours? Could their fundamental expectations differ from ours?
There’s nothing wrong with such differences. They simply represent the mindsets of different cultures. But BOTH inputs are relevant to selecting the best possible President.
Wouldn’t the collective judgement of Regents AND Faculty be superior to that of any single group?
The irony of Emmert’s statements concerning NCAA student athletes when viewed against the Regents reluctance to seek substantive Faculty input in selecting a new UW President should not be missed.
Steve Hauschka
THE Ave Editor’s amusing, AND TOTALLY UNSOLICITED, inserted photo above the copy of my AAUP List Serve post is, disappointedly, not me in my muscular youth. Nor, unfortunately, is it the photo of a game-winning 70-yd Husky kickoff that was recovered after an end zone fumble. Even though the sole purpose of my nearly 50 years of skeletal muscle research has been, as stipulated by very fine print in the contracts of all UW School of Medicine professors: “to be exclusively focused toward the creation of stronger UW student athletes,” enhancing the physical prowess of Husky athletes has been such a dismal failure that the UW Athletics Dept. has received permission from the Regents to convert the entire Medical School to an overflow parking lot for Husky boosters.
For yet more NCAA student athlete irony, the Steve Hauschka Baltimore Raven NFL kicker shown in the photo, is actually my namesake nephew. Steve majored in Neuroscience at Middlebury College (Division III) — where football practice occurs during only about 10 weeks in the Fall, lasts only a few hours per afternoon, and players don’t need to show up if they’re too busy with coursework and labs. Steve applied to and was accepted by many Dental Schools, but decided it might also be fun to play in the NFL. Steve completed his third NFL season as the very successful replacement Denver Bronco kicker, and is now — along with all the rest of the NFL players — unemployed.
NFL player unemployment? Sounds like an emergency!
Do they get unemployment benefits?