Yeah, but as someone who works in academia, I would be interested to see how much more success business people actually have in the many hats they wear as a president. A lot of business people are totally shielded from the diverse groups and work they are expected to understand on a university campus. I worked at a university that hired a relatively young woman from academia to lead their university and by all accounts she's been a smashing success in fundraising and otherwise. When you become a university president, you are immediately connected to donors. I just don't see the role of a president being the same as business person.

I completely understand and respect your viewpoint, especially since you've committed your life work to education at the college level.

But remember university boards and regents are almost exclusively big business types, so I think you are going to see more appointments like this, especially because they know you can't teach anyone if you don't raise boatloads of money.

Did a little research for my own purpose.

OSU - Burns Hargis - Business

About 7/10 are from academic backgrounds. I found it interesting that both of Okahoma's are from business backgrounds. That might have more to do with the board of regents than anything.

Burns Hargis was principally a lawyer in private practice (Hartzog, Conger, Cason & Hargis), but he also represented FDIC post-Penn Square Bank. Here's an excerpt from a 7/2/2007 article from the Journal Record: Burns Hargis spent much of the 1980s shutting down banks on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It wasn't uncommon for his law firm at the time to handle the final paperwork when the FDIC decided a bank had failed.

So he had enough experience as an attorney to understand that the order he hand-delivered to the federal judge 25 years ago this week would have ramifications beyond a few unhappy depositors. He just didn't realize how deeply the impact would be felt when Penn Square Bank in Oklahoma City was declared insolvent.

My problem is that we have no evidence that the board expanded the search beyond that demographic, which unless you believe that only white men are capable of being university presidents, means that they may not have properly searched the field of candidates. In many professions, the good ol' boy system has resulted in candidate pools being limited to people withing their social and/or business circles, which fail to bring in many qualified candidates. Once doors are opened to all candidates, search committees often find that there are many people they did not know who are highly qualified. I never said this president is not qualified or will not be successful, but considering the diversity of Oklahoma and OU's student body, it's fair to expect a number of women, people of color, and/or Indigenous peoples were in the search pool, right? When you have diverse, open searches over time, you won't tend to get the same demographic every time.

True. But there is also no evidence that they didn’t expand the search beyond that demographic unless you just assume that none of them believe that a person of color or a woman would be capable of running a university as well as a white male.

Basically I just don’t like the jump to conclusions, “they hired a white guy so they so they obviously didn’t interview anyone other than whites guys because they are racists” attitude that seems to be so prevalent over the last few years.

How often are university president searches as open as you would’ve liked OU’s to have been?

One thing I'm not thrilled about is that he is 64 years old, 12 years older than Boren when he took that job.

Makes you think he is there to insure the university is in good financial condition over this critical time of lack of state support, and then will get out of the way for a more academically focused president as his successor. It will be important to see who he surrounds himself with. Like with any good CEO, the executive level staff is critical and telling of priorities.

I just received an e-mail from him, sent to all members of the Sooner Club. Due to the nature of the group he was addressing, it was understandably athletics and fundraising-focused. But he did expand a bit on his background (most of which I think has been reported):


...I cannot express in words what it means to me to become the 14th president of the University. I love OU, all it stands for, and all we will accomplish together. While I received an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado, I received my J.D. degree from the OU College of Law in 1977, and I have been passionate about the University ever since. In fact, our Gallogly Family Foundation has been a major benefactor for which the OU Gallogly College of Engineering and Gallogly Hall are named. Additionally, the Foundation chose the OU College of Law as the pilot school for our selective Public Interest Fellowship Program, which supports a limited number of graduates pursuing public interest work.

A little about my professional background: As the former chairman and chief executive officer of LyondellBasell, I guided the company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in record time and successfully repositioned it as one of the world's largest refining companies and makers of polymers and petrochemicals. I began my career in 1980 in Northeast Oklahoma, serving in executive roles at ConocoPhillips, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and Phillips Petroleum Company for 29 years...

Makes you think he is there to insure the university is in good financial condition over this critical time of lack of state support, and then will get out of the way for a more academically focused president as his successor. It will be important to see who he surrounds himself with. Like with any good CEO, the executive level staff is critical and telling of priorities.

I agree that this is a strong possibility. Fundraising has never been so important for higher ed. There is a definite upside to having someone in place who has a head for business, fundraising, and bridge-building.

I also agree that there is potential for downside if business interests are allowed to interfere or dictate too much regarding honest scientific pursuit, for instance. My hope is that he is an honest and fair broker who allows academia to pursue knowledge without restraint. Money is of course required for that endeavor, also. Fingers crossed that it's a good or even great hire.

nm

I see "nm" on this site frequently. What the heck does it stand for? Never mind? Not me? Is that really something that needs to be shortened? If it is referencing a prior post, shouldn't it quote the post?

It's usually an edited post if you make an argument about something, and then decide that it's not worth the ongoing discussion. So you edit your argument and delete it, replacing it with n(ever)m(ind)

It's usually an edited post if you make an argument about something, and then decide that it's not worth the ongoing discussion. So you edit your argument and delete it, replacing it with n(ever)m(ind)

Thank you! I felt so lost.

Yes I am aware. I was just wondering if it is normal in the big 12 to have more with academia backgrounds or more with business or political backgrounds.

An academic background isn't the silver bullet either. See David Schmidly's short term in Stillwater as a prime example. I honestly don't know if there is any one qualification that should hinder someone from obtaining this position. There are so many different backgrounds that have succeeded and failed at this position that you really just have to be open minded about it all.

And as a reminder, Boren didn't really have an academic background and by all accounts he's been fantastic in that role.

I wonder if he will let the unwashed masses enjoy cold beer during home football games.

I wonder if he will let the unwashed masses enjoy cold beer durimg home football games.

Yes, one of the biggest criticisms of Boren was that he was a bit of a prig.

However, the new man is from the same generation, so I'm not sure he'll be much different.

Yes, one of the biggest criticisms of Boren was that he was a bit of a prig.

However, the new man is from the same generation, so I'm not sure he'll be much different.

With OSU changing the rules it will be hard to pass up all that sponsorship cash from Bud.

Oil Overlords select James Gallogly to be next OU President… (https://www.thelostogle.com/2018/03/26/oil-overlords-select-james-gallogly-to-be-next-ou-president/)

Expected OU president James Gallogly lacks higher academic background compared to Big 12 peers (http://www.oudaily.com/news/expected-ou-president-james-gallogly-lacks-higher-academic-background-compared/article_1cd82830-3070-11e8-80bf-13dd80032e87.html)

Ugh. I didn't realize he was a director for Continental Resources, which was of course at the center of the controversy with the Oklahoma Geological Survey which is administered by OU.

In fact, he was Chairman of the Management Board at the time when Boren and Hamm allegedly strong-armed the state's top seismologist due to a study he published which linked earthquakes to the O&G industry.

IMO, that was the worst blunder of Boren's tenure, especially since he seems to have lied about it.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/earthquakes/deposition-former-state-seismologist-felt-pressured-not-to-link-oklahoma/article_19c0dfb1-fc12-5a9f-8aa7-eea06d829d8e.html

Yes, one of the biggest criticisms of Boren was that he was a bit of a prig.

However, the new man is from the same generation, so I'm not sure he'll be much different.

Hopefully his business sense is better than Boren’s when it comes to those issues. Way too much financial upside to not start allowing some of those things.

Hopefully his business sense is better than Boren’s when it comes to those issues. Way too much financial upside to not start allowing some of those things.

A lot of that got blamed on Molly but good grief, she had no official capacity. If she was making such calls then that still reflects directly on him.

I love what Boren did for OU but was thought it was time to go in another more progressive direction. This choice sure doesn't seem to be that.

Uh, maybe because O& G is OUs lifeblood? Those donations aren't being made by all the financial, high tech and movie stars that live in the area.

The issue is not with O&G donating to the university, or with the university accepting O&G money. The issue is if the O&G donations influence the academic work being conducted at the university.

If academic integrity suffers because of the source of the donation, is the donation worth having?

Schools, especially public schools, in the area of concentrated industry, will always cater to the needs of those industries. The school educates students to be employed by the dominate industry. You all villify O & G but I bet you all drive cars and fly on airplanes. The whole O & G thing will slowly fade away as hybrid and electric cars become mainstream so in reality, we SHOULD all hope he can maintain the ties with O & G but diversify as much as possible at the same time. OU has few sugar daddies so they need to culivate and maintain what they have along with expanding to new donors.

A degree from a school without academic integrity is worthless. I can drive a car and still expect a University to have academic honesty if they get O&G money. How would you feel if drug manufacturers donate to medical schools in echange for dishonest research downplaying the side effects of their drugs?

Again, the issue is not that schools get O&G money. The O&G money only becomes an issue of schools fudge the outcomes of research or prohibit research in certain areas in order to maintain those donations. If he can bring O&G money to OU, and OU academics and research can remain science driven and independent from O&G desires, then it’s a great outcome for everyone involved.

How would you feel if drug manufacturers donate to medical schools in echange for dishonest research downplaying the side effects of their drugs?

That doesn't happen, does it? (severe sarcasm intended)

I have about 4 dozen clients in O & G and in socializing about how I went to OU I've heard nothing but good remarks about OU hires. In fact OU and TTech grads always get highly complimentary remarks. The only place I've heard/seen more from in the industry is CO School of Mines. O & G runs on not just technology and engineering, but a lot of wildcatter/gambling mentality which is prevelant among those in the business. OUs rep is certainly not in any doubt among the employers - of which there are dozens in Denver. In fact, the OU Club of Denver is the largest in the country - save possibly of Dallas - thanks greatly to those in O & G.

I think the new president will have more personal accountability than Boren. If another controversy like the USGS earthquake happens again, all hell will break out.

http://newsok.com/ou-president-boren-suffers-medical-event-saturday-morning/article/5591003

I'm sure my memory is just lacking from when I was a student at OU, but it seems like he aged really quickly in a short amount of time..

News outlets now reporting that OU officials released a statement saying he suffered a minor stroke.