The words often have been repeated around the University of Akron — about the need to repair relationships on campus and with the larger community. Matt Wilson, who moved from dean of the law school to interim president in July, has made a point of reaching out and showing up, whether helping students move into their dorms or appearing at high schools in the area. Now comes a defining test for Wilson and, especially, the trustees on how committed they are to the necessary repair work.
Wilson landed in the presidency after Scott Scarborough proved unequal to the job, lacking the leadership skills to implement his ideas, of which some were good and others much less so. After Scarborough stepped down, Rex Ramsier, the interim senior vice president and provost, put together a “Tiger Team,” its members drawn from the faculty, deans, department chairs, school directors and administrators. The team had the task of generating recommendations to enhance enrollment, university finances and governance.
All of this falls under the banner of advancing collaboration and the university as a whole in the wake of nearly two years of tumult.
The team made many recommendations. None is more important than the proposal for shared governance, calling for the board of trustees to add representatives of the Faculty Senate, faculty union, department chairs and the University Council to its committees. These representatives would be nonvoting members. Trustees still would hold the power.
What would benefit the board — and thus the university, community and region — is the information, context and advice the faculty participants would provide. The Tiger Team got it right in stating “this show of trust and good faith would immediately begin to repair relationships with important internal constituencies.”
For all the blame cast on Scarborough, his troubled tenure goes back ultimately to the trustees. They appeared isolated, out of touch and ill-informed about the real workings of the university. The UA board is not alone. The system for appointing trustees in Ohio favors political ties, too often at the expense of a solid grasp of higher education.
That system should be overhauled. Until then, and the guess is, it won’t be soon, the UA trustees would do well to tap the expertise and experience around them. Faculty members would add to the discussion, providing a valuable voice in the decision-making of the trustees.
The fallout from the Scarborough tenure continues, in the 8 percent decline in enrollment, the departures at the EXL Center and the Center for Data Science, Analytics and Information Technology, the struggle with fundraising. Matt Wilson and others are mobilizing to address the problems, diminished resources and all.
What should be clear is that there are no shortcuts. The future of the university depends on securing a reputation for high quality and even excellence. That rests on the capacity of the faculty. Attract talent, and students will come, the remedy for iffy enrollment.
This ripple effect should provide all the encouragement the trustees need to embrace the recommendation of the Tiger Team. Add faculty to board committees, and the university would signal brightly what it values. It also would amount to inspired and inclusive statement of lessons learned.
