For the record, Hunter Smith is a very nice lady who likes to donate money to the University of Virginia. Last year, one of her donations resulted in the construction of the Marching Band building, which has been much appreciated by our younger daughter who plays trumpet for the 'Hoos and was used to having practices cancelled due to rain in past years.
Hunter Smith has not been amused by the recent ouster of Teresa Sullivan from her job as UVA President, a job that Sullivan held only two years. Hunter Smith has reacted by speaking plainly: she announced this week that UVA is not going to get a dime of Hunter Smith's money until Helen Dragas and Mark Kington, the wealthy business folk currently serving as Chair and Vice Chair of the UVA Board of Visitors who seem to have led the Dump Sullivan movement, resign from said Board.
Here's a lesson for the business school types who decided to lead a revolt of the wealthy at Jefferson's University. Â The lesson is something they teach you in business school, oddly enough. It goes like this: "If nobody wants to buy what you are selling, you go out of business."
recommend
Facebook
Twitter
bookmark 
print
Comments: 7
“I have been described as an incrementalist. It is true,†Sullivan said. “Sweeping action may be gratifying and may create the aura of strong leadership, but its unintended consequences may lead to costs that are too high to bear.â€
Sullivan said she had worked in collaboration with vice presidents, deans and faculty leaders, building a foundation for “greater change†later. “This is the best, most constructive, most long lasting, and beneficial way to change a university. Until the last ten days, the change at U-Va. has not been disruptive change, and it has not been high-risk change. Corporate-style, top-down leadership does not work in a great university.â€
Sullivan indicated that board leaders pressed her to make “deep, top-down cuts,†potentially eroding the university’s portfolio of core programs.
“A university that does not teach the full range of arts and sciences will no longer be a university,†she said. “Certainly it will no longer be respected as such by its former peers.†She underlined the word “former.’’
It appears to be a mirror of what has happened on the national stage. The University/country experienced a significant downturn in donations/income due to the worldwide economic downturn under the policies of the previous administration/administration. Then the same people who lost value complained that the new administration wasn't fixing the problem fast enough, even though the problem was being fixed (donations were back up under Sullivan's tenure).
Meanwhile the response is the same - cut programs that enhance education, use command-and-control techniques to force your beliefs on the community at large, and focus on short-term profit instead of long-term sustainability.
It's exactly as Sullivan states "Corporate-style, top-down leadership" where one person dictates the minions with the goal of giving something they can tout in the next quarterly report. Unfortunately, sacrificing the future for the short-term is always a bad idea.