Published Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:05 AM
A&M may combine top posts
By VIMAL PATEL
vimal.patel@theeagle.com
Texas A&M University System officials are considering merging the jobs of system chancellor and Texas A&M University president, Chancellor Mike McKinney confirmed Tuesday.
No plans for such a move are in place, McKinney told The Eagle, but he and regents are looking at a variety of ways to cut costs, and combining the two posts is one of many possible solutions.
McKinney said combining the posts would reduce duplication of duties between the system and university.
"I will promise you, one of the things [regents] noticed and they talked about before is that people they have within the system and people within the flagship university appear to be doing the same thing, and sometimes they appear to be doing things in contrast to what their counterparts are doing in the other places," McKinney said.
"They're going to look at whether there needs to be some elimination of duplication," he said. "It's not just about the chancellor and the president. It's about the whole organization. Their concern is about wasting taxpayer money."
Texas A&M President Elsa Murano, like several A&M faculty members and administrators, said she had heard talk about the possible merger.
"I've heard those rumors, and they concern me deeply," Murano said during a brief interview Tuesday afternoon. "I'm working to see if it's just a rumor. I haven't talked to Chancellor McKinney, but I plan to."
They spoke late Tuesday afternoon, but details of that conversation were not available.
Texas A&M University is one of nine universities within the Texas A&M University System, which also includes seven state agencies and a health science center. It has 27,000 faculty and staff members.
Robert Bednarz, speaker of the faculty senate, said consolidating the positions was not a good idea because each is the equivalent of more than one full-time job.
In the 1970s, regents seemed to have the same opinion and opted to reinstate the role of chancellor after the job had been folded into the duties of Texas A&M President James Earl Rudder.
"The job is too large for any one person," said H.G. "Clyde" Wells, chairman of the regents at the time. Since 1977, the positions have been separate.
McKinney is Murano's boss, but the ultimate governing authority is the system's Board of Regents.
Regents could not be reached Tuesday to comment for this story. On Monday, board member Bill Jones said it would be up to the chancellor to make any such recommendation to the regents. McKinney has made no such proposal, he said.
Last week, McKinney had lunch with the presidents and CEOs of the other entities in the system in which the "future restructuring" of the system was discussed, according to someone in the room. Murano was not present.
Rod Davis, a spokesman for McKinney, confirmed that the meeting took place but said that it was routine and that Murano, and every other president, was invited. Davis said the group might have talked about merging the chancellor and A&M presidency positions.
"Although that topic has been under discussion on and off for the last couple years," Davis said. "If talk is going on, talk is going on. ... I don't know of any acceleration of that."
Current and former faculty leaders voiced strong concern Tuesday about the possibility of such a change.
"If these rumors are true, we're in for some dark days at Texas A&M," said R. Douglas Slack, a former speaker of the faculty senate. "I think it's pretty clear that when we go through these periods of instability, it diminishes the reputation of Texas A&M."
McKinney, a former chief of staff for Gov. Rick Perry who became chancellor in November 2006, earned $503,000 in 2008, plus $150,000 in deferred compensation. Murano, who became president of Texas A&M in January 2008, made $425,000 that year, and $100,000 in deferred compensation.
McKinney on Tuesday denied talk of the creation of a cost-cutting committee that would examine where to make cuts. He wakes up every day with efficiency for the system and taxpayer on his mind, he said.
"The one reason you can tell that that's true is, I very seldom appoint committees to do the job I do every day," he said. "I don't need a committee to tell me I need to save money."
Regents have belt-tightening on their minds, McKinney said, pointing to their decision last week to cap this fall's tuition increase on students at 4 percent, or $150 per semester, lower than what Murano and the presidents of other system universities had wanted.
"The messages they were sending to me were pretty clear to me. They were pretty clear to everybody," McKinney said. "They are going to expect to run the university in a businesslike manner."
Comments
[comment]
37 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 03, 2009 11:33 AM
Comment Title: TAMU Chancellor/President Merger
If the proposed merger takes place in spite of the views expressed by the real stakeholders (faculty, students, staff), it will take TAMU back to the stone age. The first action the BOR needs to take is to ask the Chancellor to resign. This gentleman has through his utterances, particularly on shared governance, more than disqualified himself to be anywhere close to academia. However, as pointed out by someone on 6/2, unless the A&M stakeholders firmly stand against the 18th century authoritarian ways of the "authorities", nothing useful will happen. But then we will deserve what is given to us. Democracy is not a gift; it is to be earned.
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Posted by:
On:
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 2:06 PM
Comment Title: Professor
Comment Title: Professor 1) When I joined TAMU two decades ago, coming from Europe and having experienced the university operation there, I realized that the faculty was treated by the administration, to use a descriptive German word as “unmündig” which is translated into English as minors. Today, I see that they are treated as retarded minors. The faculty are constantly complaining about this type of treatment, but no one has the courage to express his/her opinion. They are doing teaching, research, writing proposals, bringing money in, education students, working 16 hours/day, doing what they can in order to enhance the reputation of the university but, they have no say. This situation will continue to persist as long as they have no courage to collectively express their opinions. 2) On the issue of merging two positions: Many of administrative positions with high salaries are absolutely waste of money. They are useless, inefficient and mostly created for placing incompetent people in those positions. For hiring the president, we had a search committee that conducted a national search, three highly competent people were selected, all turned down, a lady was placed into the position, who is apparently not qualified to do the job. We have not heard anything from her that can be interpreted as a sign of a high intellect and a vision for future of the university. The position of president should be filled with a person of high academic, research and administrative credentials irrespective of political affiliation, race, origin and gender.
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Posted by:
John On:
Tuesday, June 02, 2009 1:48 PM
Comment Title: Also found this link, interesting points made
http://tamuchancellormustgo.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/more-questions/
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Posted by:
E On:
Monday, June 01, 2009 11:48 PM
Comment Title: r.e., What about the TAMU System?
A&M announced two new schools about a week ago: one in San Antonio, and one in 'central Texas'. Seriously, this elementary school playground competition is why A&M has a useless solar system of satellite schools and branch campuses. Tell me how the Qatar campus benefits Texas A&M in College Station, and that its existence is worth the money funneled away from here, and our ostensible endeavor (Vision 2020). Do we really need to affiliate with West Texas A&M? Let UT build or buy campuses. They can hardly expand their flagship campus in Austin. But in College Station, I have ever known a month without at least 2 major building projects. GM just declared bankruptcy. Chrysler too. The taxpayers own Citibank twice over. All the money spent so far on Vision 2020 meetings, chartered jets, and PowerPoint presntations, as well as the actual efforts haven't had the desired effect. And A&M is about to drop $100M on the MSC. Also they plan to update some of the graduate apartments on Univ. Dr. Could this be a consolidation project to free up streetside space for an even grander project? Its the wrong time to expand the system. It makes more sense to have a garage sale, and dump a few of them.
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Posted by:
On:
Saturday, May 30, 2009 10:25 AM
Comment Title: What about the TAMU System?
It is striking that in the discussion of a new top tier university for Texas, there are 4 UT campuses being discussed and no additional TAMU campuses being discussed. A proposal to merge the TAMU president with the TAMUS chancellor seems to concede that the rest of the System doesn't matter to the regents at all.
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Posted by:
Inside Info On:
Friday, May 29, 2009 4:28 PM
Comment Title: PERRY 4 PRESIDENT!
Not of TAMU...but the actual United States of America. You don't go to Bilderberg to become president of Texas A&M.
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, May 29, 2009 1:45 PM
Comment Title:
Thanks for your input coach sherman.
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, May 29, 2009 1:37 PM
Comment Title:
What this comes down to is overzealous people looking for any excuse to oust what they see as a threat to MY alma mater--A HISPANIC WOMAN. Hide behind "cost-cutting" all you want. Everyone knows the truth.
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, May 29, 2009 10:25 AM
Comment Title: It's a question of Integrity
Murano has no Integrity and that's why she's getting the boot. A&M doesn't need or want someone like her in this position. Dr. McKinney is a man of GREAT integrity. Point blank, I trust him, I don't trust Murano.
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Posted by:
On:
Friday, May 29, 2009 10:22 AM
Comment Title: Murano was a mistake and now it's getting fixed!
The problem is not with the Chancellor it's with the President. While the Chancellor was reducing spending and cutting out non-essential positions the President was increasing spending in her own office to the tune of $1.5 Million!! She was a mistake and the Board of Regents and the Chancellor are trying to fix it. That's the only agenda we're seeing here. This will not be a permanent position, but rather an interim deal until another suitable President can be identified. Less we forget, Dr. McKinney is the same person who turned the University of Texas Health Science Center from a $2 million deficit to a $3 million surplus in a very short time. He is MORE than capable of doing both jobs and doing it better than the current President.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 28, 2009 1:14 PM
Comment Title: Worried About TAMU
What a mess the Regents and their dictator boss have gotten themselves into. First, the Regents rejected the world class, proven, and diverse presidential candidates recommended by the Presidential Search Committee in 2007; Second, they picked an unproven Murano to lead one of the nation’s largest universities; and Third, they dictate a series of really stupid actions for her to execute during her tenure. Now, all of this seems intended to put McKinney into a position that he is clearly not equipped to execute any better than he has executed the Chancellor’s job–what a disaster! Yet, after all this, the Regents still think they are right as they spiral further closer to the point of no return. There is a true disconnect in the Regents view of their governance capabilities and decisions vs. the reality of their total lack of wisdom.
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Posted by:
jane On:
Thursday, May 28, 2009 12:02 PM
Comment Title: comedian
Is McKinney now operating as a comedian? It is NEVER the driving force "to save taxpayers' money" in any government action....those who work in a governmental role got where they are by false promises and greed. Please don't insult us, Mr. McKinney, by making such an erroneous/false statement. No one is laughing.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:27 PM
Comment Title: Where is the administrative bloating?
It seems to me that costly proliferation of administrators is not coming from the University side but rather from the System office, that of the Chancellor himself. The System office does not teach, does not generate grants, does not do research, does not contribute at all to the educational or scholarly mission of any of campuses in the system. Yet that office has grown dramatically over the past 5 years. If the argument is about cost saving, then the chancellor should clean his own house first.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:03 PM
Comment Title:
It's too bad that running Texas A&M University is such a soap opera.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 5:16 PM
Comment Title: Murano today, Reveille tomorrow
This is only the tip of the iceberg. After McKinney installs himself in Murano's position, he next plans to replace Reveille with his own house dog, Commander Perry. Refer back to the comments he made during the protracted interval between Reveille VII and Reveille VIII. Where will it all end?
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 4:27 PM
Comment Title: Bloated upper level administration
I've been at A&M as student and staff for 32 years. In that time, I've been appalled at how top heavy the university has become. Every time there's been a RIF due to budget cuts, it's been those doing actual work and living paycheck to paycheck that's suffered, not the pampered, overpaid, underworked high level administration. We need to get rid of at least half the vice presidents, vice chancellors, etc. Murano has been bad in this regard. When she took over as Dean of the College of Agriculture, she immediately created new deputies under her to do her work for her. When she became President of A&M, she did the same thing. All these people do is attend meetings with each other, and send each other memos. All that money spent on their salaries, vacations (er, business travel), toys, and perks are wasted. I would urge the legislature to cut A&M's funding, but since it's left to A&m how to do those cuts, the fatcats in administration protect each other while the custodial workers, support staff, etc. bear the financial brunt instead. I support the idea of getting rid of the Chancellor and having a council of university presidents do the work instead (or whatever deputy they assign so they don't have to do it themselves). If we really want to streamline the system, then serious trimming needs to be done at the upper administration level, and limit the powers of the university president to create more positions at this level.
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Posted by:
J.E. McTaggart On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 4:14 PM
Comment Title: Possibility for Political Synthesis
It may be that combining the two posts of Chancellor and President is not the real goal at all, but merely a suggestion to incite heated criticism. Rick Perry will then have the opportunity to play savior against said suggestion by becoming the Chancellor himself and allowing McKinney to become President. This would be seen by the public as a "compromise" but would indeed have been the plan all along.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:55 PM
Comment Title:
"McKinney, a former chief of staff for Gov. Rick Perry..." ---------------------------- Herein lies the source of so many of our problems. A Governor Goodhair cronie who is completely unqualified for his position. As someone who spent a *lot* of time in the 1990s working with the President's Office, I can tell you that's already a 60 hour per week job. The person in that job does not need any more workload. Real cost savings would come if downsizers were to go through A&M's non-academic departments and look at the positions with titles like Vice-President, Associate Vice-President, Assistant Vice-President, Provost, Director, Associate Director, and on and on. There is a large group of managers at our school who do nothing but fill their days with meetings with each other and then go to more meetings to discuss what happened at their earlier meetings.
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Posted by:
FASTRAC On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:20 PM
Comment Title: RE: chaching
CHACHING !!!.........pay the man Shirley !!!!!
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 1:31 PM
Comment Title:
You're so right. We should save money by cutting out the Chancellor and his executive staff. Their roles are redundant and expensive to support. Let the CEO's work as a team to run the system.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 12:20 PM
Comment Title:
I am anxious to hear more about this plan. It's great to see some innovative thinking. Consolidation as described could be an excellent way to cut costs and perhaps the best way to control tuition increases. As a parent of an A&M student and a business person myself, I commend the Chancellor and the Board of Regents for finding ways to make the University and the System more efficient and responsive to the mission of educating students--not promoting needless bureaucracy and waste. The faculty should be 100% behind this idea. Less money wasted on duplicative administration can mean more money for the classroom. Can't wait to hear more!!
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:59 AM
Comment Title:
This guy controls enough by greasing the skids from behind the scenes (athletics). Are you sure you want to give him additional formal power? If the article has merit, this was a tacky way to float the idea but I guess it should be expected based on past experience.
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Posted by:
chaching On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:55 AM
Comment Title: Is Dick Cheney also involved in these discussions?
Outdated Republican politics at its best. By gosh, let's show those liberal democrats that we don't need any Hispanic women on our Supreme Court or running a major university in our state. This same type of lemming thinking is the problem with our football program. Let's only hire someone who "fits in" and understands the traditions of our university, even if they are not a coach that can win in an extremely competitive Big 12. Aggies at the highest levels are responsible for the football meltdown, which will take a decade to repair--and probably not with the current head coach. Now, Aggies at the highest level want to make a political move that will assist in the destruction of a great university. Dick Cheney must be involved.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:17 AM
Comment Title:
I like the CEO Council idea. It would create a real opportunity to organize the CEOs in such a way that would make them accountable for collaborating with each other and working together as a team. We might actually save some money.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:05 AM
Comment Title:
BS! The chancellor wants TAMU's money and prestige. TAMU will be bankrupt if this happens.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:02 AM
Comment Title: Long time supporter of Texas A&M and it's true mission
As a retired long time employee of Texas A&M and a former student, I am absolutely sick to see the machinations that the Chancellor, along with his coach Rick Perry,are attempting to do to a wonderful educational institution. This has nothing to do with saving money, it is strictly a political ploy. Dr. Murano has done a good job in spite of interference from The System Building and from Austin. Her hands have been tied in so many instances (such as the hiring of the VP for student affairs). She has tried to do her best in spite of having some of the decisions taken out of her hands. If there is a true (??!!) desire to cut costs, it needs to be done at The System level. That unit is the one that has duplicated efforts and swollen it's budget since 1977. When the positions were split in 1977 that was also a political move - some regents wanted to take power away from Jack Williams. Texas A&M University is the unit with the outstanding reputation and is the leader in higher education, not The System!!! The idea of the coordination of all System units by a council with a rotating chair of that group is an excellent one. With that system, all of the System presidents could really work together and not be hampered by System offices that are only looking to line their own pockets, be political bedfellows of the Governor, and grasp all of the power they can reach. If you want one leader, that needs to be Dr. Elsa Murano, certainly not Mike McKinney!!! Dr. Murano is too good a scholar and a good soldier in the fields of educating young people to do this to her.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:55 AM
Comment Title:
I love the CEO Council idea. As a parent of a student, I would view this as a positive step to keep A&M on a path of success, while doing something meaningful to reduce waste and bloated salaries for system executives who really don't do anything except play political games.
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Posted by:
J.P Morgan On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:48 AM
Comment Title: A&M A "World Class" University??
What kinda dope are you smoking?? I came here over the Ivy's knowing I'd run circles around these chimps. I asked myself this: Would I rather benchwarm on the A team or be a stud on the B team? Choice was simple. The ONLY thing A&M has going for them is G.H.W Bush's legacy...and he is a great man. I feel sorry that alot of these morons here bring the Bush name shame.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:44 AM
Comment Title:
Guess you're right. It would never happen because it does make good sense. Also, I meant the council to be made up of CEOs not CIOs. As a Science major, I can never get these business acronyms straight.
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Posted by:
jg64 On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:39 AM
Comment Title:
Speaking of money, is anyone aware of what sort of financial hit the university's invested funds took as a result of the market meltdown and is this drive to reduce costs in any way related to that event. I would be more comforted to know that our Former Students and Endowment moneys weren't heavily invested in the auto industries.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:32 AM
Comment Title:
WILL NOT HAPPEN. Makes too much sense, is too resonable, is too smart, is too efficient, and saves too much money.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:27 AM
Comment Title:
Here’s an idea for the Board of Regents to consider. Let’s let the Chancellor and some of the other upper level system executives go. This would save a upwards of over a million dollars or two. Then, form our system’s university and agency presidents into a council of CIO’s. This council would be responsible for coordinating efforts, finding ways to share resources, collaborating on strategic initiatives, and developing programs to reduce waste and redundancy. To head this council, the Board of Regents could then appoint a rotating chair from one of the CIOs. This chair position would have some of the same duties as the Chancellor’s current role. This would include drafting system proposals for approval, coordinating efforts of all the universities and agencies, and providing oversight and direction for the system’s operations. Because of the additional duties, the chair would earn a temporary salary increase so long as they served in this temporary role. This also makes sense because the CIOs actually have real-world experience and skills running our universities and agencies.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:20 AM
Comment Title:
As long as Murano is not the President, the University has a better chance of saving it's reputation and re-establishing itself as a world class University. Now if they would only hire a qualified VP for Student Affairs.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 9:33 AM
Comment Title:
cost cutting is the smoke that the real reson is hiding behind.
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Posted by:
Jack On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:42 AM
Comment Title:
well, if he's so keen on cost-cutting I guess that means that we should eliminate the chancellor's position and stick with the less expensive president! Is he going to take a cut in salary and fire his staff to become president or is he going to voluntarily resign to save the money?
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:39 AM
Comment Title:
I don't know about this. Do you think President Murano has the experience to handle both jobs? To the first post, how about doing the math on dollars invested in football coaches and lost revenue due to their poor performance. We could make millions in gained ticket sales, tv revenue, apparel sales, bowl money, etc, etc. if we had even an average season on the field.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 8:01 AM
Comment Title:
Perhaps after McKinney does this, he´ll come to the realization that there is duplication of football coaches across the system (they´re all just trying to win games), and make Sherman coach every TAMU system football team.
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