U Of Virginia President Controversy Demonstrates Why Higher Ed Is Failing

Higher education is in crisis, and leaders like Teresa Sullivan, the recently dismissed University of Virginia president, bear a heavy burden of responsibility for not effectively leading. Simply put, high-quality universities have become too expensive and increasingly inaccessible because their presidents and other top leaders have failed to recognize and address the challenges and opportunities posed to their institutions by new technologies. At the root of all this are the flawed performances of incrementalist presidents like Teresa Sullivan, who are more administrators than leaders—and the flawed governance models of universities. Read more at: 
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/06/21/ouster-uva-president-was-justified-sullivan-dismissal-highlights-what-wrong/#ixzz1yWR5EGDj

 

 

 

Comments

[Tom Lynch]

I'm a Charlottesville local following this controversy unfolding in my backyard. We've been intrigued and annoyed with how this story is bubbling up to national media levels without reflecting all sides of the issue. This Fox opinion piece is particularly interesting, because its author lacks credibility in the opinion of many around here. Some suspect he's paid by a PR firm hired by UVA's rector. Or he makes a living trolling for inflammatory topics to write about to get media attention.

This is a fascinating story with more sides than this opinion piece acknowledges. I refer you to a local Charlottesville blogger that has been following this closely. Admittedly, he has his own bias, but his coverage, summaries, and links to other media give a more well rounded look at this issue. http://cvillenews.com/

Whatever side of the fence you're on regarding higher education, the real story is how this forced resignation of the President was absolutely bungled. Even if the BOV did it for sound reasons (which is arguably false) the manner in which they did it and the distrust in their leadership their actions caused has harmed the reputation of the university, likely causing more damage to UVA than President Sullivan could have ever done on her own. And most people around here feel she wasn't doing any damage to UVA anyway.