The University of Akron board of trustees and a senior administrator are calling the shots after President Scott Scarborough stepped down last week.
During a recent interview, UA Board of Trustees Chair Jonathan Pavloff said the board will have an interim president in place very soon, but there is no timetable other than “way before the fall.”
There is a formal process for selecting a new president, but not for an interim president, Pavloff said.
“Our rules for conducting a search for a president are fairly straightforward, inclusive and transparent, and takes a long time to execute,” Pavloff said. “The search for an interim president will not follow a prescribed formula because we want to move a lot quicker.
“Now is the time to come together and focus on our issues for the greater good of the university and put personal feelings aside.”
In the meantime, UA’s top remaining administrator, Interim Senior Vice President and Provost Rex Ramsier, is the “acting interim president.”
Ramsier, already serving as acting provost, was asked to temporarily take over the responsibilities of the presidency after Scarborough officially relinquished his duties on May 31.
Scarborough will become a faculty member and has accepted a teaching assignment in the College of Business Administration starting this fall.
Ramsier said he is “fulfilling the responsibilities of the presidency” only until an interim president is appointed.
Though in the job only temporarily, he’s setting up an action plan to attack some of the problems at the university, including declining enrollment, governance and finances. The university is facing a potential $20 million drop in revenue next school year.
“We have a balance sheet that includes a lot of debt service, more so than most other schools, and with that kind of requirement our ability to invest in other programs is somewhat compromised,” Pavloff said. “What we know is, without everyone in the university community being engaged in a common fashion to address those issues, the likelihood of success is severely compromised. We all need to work together.”
He said naming an interim president will be a great opportunity to bring the university community together to come up with programs with broad support before the search for a new president.
Ramsier stressed that there has to be an internal plan first.
And, in fact, one of Ramsier’s first actions in his new temporary role was to create a “Tiger Team” to draw from the expertise of the university community to come up with ideas to address UA’s ongoing problems.
When asked about his thoughts, Ramsier said his opinion doesn’t really count.
“It’s not about me. Everyone’s opinion is valuable and equally important, so it doesn’t matter what I think. We will make decisions together,” he said. “We have a good group of people here at the University of Akron who are dedicated to this institution. We need to pull together and find solutions.”
Strong ties
Ramsier, 52, a Canton native who is married with five children, has strong ties to UA.
He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Akron in 1987 and 1989, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994.
He spent two years in an industrial job as a senior scientist with Westinghouse Electric Corp. before returning to UA in 1996 as an assistant professor of physics.
He became an associate professor with tenure in 2002 and a full professor in 2005.
In 2006, he went into administration as director of UA’s Institute for Teaching and Learning. Since then, he has held various administrative roles at the university, including vice provost and interim dean.
In January, he was named UA’s interim senior vice president and provost.
He said his focus has always been on academics and the inner workings of the university.
“We will also have to work on getting community support and reaching outside the university, but I’m not that guy,” he said. “I know my strengths and that’s not one of them.”
He said he’s waiting to see the criteria for the interim president job before deciding whether he’s qualified to apply.
“I’m not going to apply for something that I know I wouldn’t be any good at,” he said. “I know my strengths and my weaknesses.”
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.