Wonk & Roll: The next UMass president

By John Schneider

With Marty Meehan out of the running for UMass president, we thought it might be helpful to nominate a few other candidates for consideration. So, in no particular order—other than alphabetical—here is our list:

• Ian Bowles—All agree that the soon to be former Massachusetts secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs has done a stellar job molding the state agency into a force for change.  He’s been Governor Patrick’s go to guy for positioning Mass. to be a global leader in renewable energy.  The governor should ask him to do the same with the state’s university, tapping into Bowles’s DC connections, Oxford degree, and MassINC “centrist” roots (he is the former president and CEO of MassINC) to shape UMass into a global leader for American public higher education.
• Michel Crow—Listening to the president of Arizona State University talk about the “new American University” is like hearing a good sermon in church.  I believe! Where do I send the check?  What’s going on at ASU will be a game changer, and Crow is quickly becoming the leader of movement to transform the structure and practices of public higher ed.
• Ed Glaeser—The Harvard economist, Boston Globe columnist and CommonWealth magazine contributor, and one of the city’s snappiest dressers, really gets the state’s economy and the big, global challenges facing Mass. businesses and workers.  Glaeser sees economic freedom and education as the “two ingredients of sustainable economic success around the world today.”  That’s the kind of thinking we need to lead UMass to the next level.
• Katie Haycock—A relentless advocate for closing the achievement gap, Haycock leads a Washington, D.C.-based organization called the Education Trust whose approach—college begins in kindergarten—was way ahead of its time.  Nobody better articulates the lost opportunities the achievement gap represents than Haycock.  And since this is the most significant education issue facing Governor Patrick during his second term, he needs a leader at UMass making sure the university is fully engaged in learning from preK through graduation, and beyond.
• All of the above—To sum up, the next UMass president ought to be one part social entrepreneur like Bowles; one part institutional reformer like Crow; one part economic visionary like Glaeser;; and one part social justice advocate like Haycock. 

Posted in: Education