Published Wednesday, June 17, 2009 6:05 AM
Next step for A&M unclear
By VIMAL PATEL
vimal.patel@theeagle.com
R. Bowen Loftin began work as interim Texas A&M University president on Tuesday, meeting with top-level administration officials and others the day after Elsa Murano officially resigned as president.
On Monday, Texas A&M University System regents approved a broad plan lacking in specifics to combine several functions of the flagship university and the
11-university system that governs it in an effort to increase efficiency.
But the regents' meeting raised more questions, including what the search for the next Texas A&M University president would look like and who would be on the committees looking into how functions would be merged.
Texas A&M University System Chancellor Mike McKinney, Board of Regents Chairman Morris Foster, and Rod Davis, a system spokesman, did not respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Bryan Regent Phil Adams, asked several times to comment on the situation, referred questions to Foster.
McKinney did not speak during Monday's regents meeting or at a press conference that followed.
On Monday, regents heard a presentation that painted a dire economic picture for Texas A&M and higher education in general, including continued tuition increases, funding shortfalls in the next legislative session and possible reductions in other revenue sources, such as investment earnings.
Regents approved a broad plan to share services between the two entities in several areas, including research administration and marketing and communications. The latter includes sharing public relations, trademarks, publications and branding.
During the press conference Monday, Foster said he didn't know how much money would be saved or how many employees would be affected by the plan.
The next step includes the creation of teams in each area where sharing of services will be considered. The groups will make recommendations and forward them to the chancellor and the Board of Regents. McKinney and Frank Ashley, vice chancellor for academic affairs, will be responsible for creating those committees, Foster said.
"If you look at what shared service does across particularly the commercial world, what you'll see is a substantially more efficient process," said Foster, who followed up with an example during his time as president of Exxon Mobil Production Co. in Houston. "One best practice we learned in Indonesia was applied across another 26 countries in 24 hours. And that's what this university needs."
It was unclear Tuesday whether the members of the committees had been selected.
Murano, the first Hispanic and first woman to lead Texas A&M, announced her resignation from the 48,000-student university on Sunday.
State Sen. Steve Ogden, a Bryan Republican, had not seen copies of the Board of Regents presentations by Tuesday. He said that higher education had fared exceptionally well in the legislative session that concluded this month but that rising tuition was a concern.
"There is a need to reduce costs at our university. There is a need to control tuition. And there is a need for everyone to conduct themselves in an open and honest fashion," Ogden said. "I'll be watching all three."
Bob Bednarz, speaker of the Faculty Senate, said the uncertainty was upsetting the faculty.
"The board meeting didn't put their minds at ease," he said. "There still isn't much information about specifics, so quite naturally, people are worried about how things will work out. ... Until final decisions are made, people will continue to be angry and frustrated."
Details on the search for the next Texas A&M leader were also sparse. Foster said he expected a permanent president to be in place within six months. He said a national search would be conducted by a committee that included the faculty and various other constituency groups.
It's unclear how the committee will be created and who will serve on it.
A reporter asked Foster twice what qualities would be desired in the next A&M president.
"The highest quality," Foster said, before moving on to the next question.
Comments
[comment]
16 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
On:
Friday, June 19, 2009 5:39 PM
Comment Title: Let's all try to save money!
Hmm...I searched long and hard and found one department that accounts for 8 of the top 32 salaries in the A&M System. Where? The Athletics Department! Nothing like a $16M loan to help shore up $3.5 million per year in salaries! And that's only EIGHT people. All the salaries at our fine institution are available for download at http://ia310831.us.archive.org/2/items/TexasAmUniversitySalariesSep2008/TAMUSystem-Salaries-Sep2008.xls join the fun! Help our (grossly overpaid) Chancellor McKinney find some savings!
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Posted by:
E On:
Friday, June 19, 2009 2:12 AM
Comment Title: Tuition increases and funding shortfalls something new?
Tuition increases and funding shortfalls? The Regents act like this is something new. Anything to distract from their incompetence, and the scandalous events of the last few weeks. They met just last month and raised tuition the greater of 4% or $150. Oh yeah, at the same meeting, they voted to build a $35M grad student complex in the university-owned apts on Univ. Dr. Does anyone recall the excellence fee in 2001-2001? http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2001/10/18/FrontPage/Bowen.More.Money.Needed-516067.shtml Now, our genius Regents want to form committees and boards to study how to eliminate waste & duplication of services, and take advantage of bulk ordering and economies of scale. Is that to say that A&M wasn't doing so thus far, under the guidance of these magnates?! How about a blue ribbon panel to study the possibility of reducing studies, boards, & committees? And to the person who spent time reading Regent's bio's, why don't you spend some time reading former president Bowen's comments on this matter. ["Ray Bowen, who served as president of Texas A&M for eight years, said the regents are jeopardizing the value of the A&M experience and they're asking the A&M community to accept and support it. "It's clear the system has been turned over to a group of people who don't understand the university and don't have credibility with the faculty," said Bowen, a member of the National Science Board and a professor in mechanical engineering at A&M."] [Excerpted from the above Eagle story http://www.theeagle.com/am/Community-troubled-by-treatment-of-Murano] I can't decide whether your slant is cultural relativism, or the other extreme: a intellectualized (& therefore disingenuous) version of 'highway 6 goes both ways'. Look what corporate success has amounted to over the past year. I wonder if you belong at any institution called a 'UNIVERSITY' if you feel the need to quash questioning of any form.
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Posted by:
Walton Hall On:
Thursday, June 18, 2009 1:29 PM
Comment Title: Only in Aggieland
This is just a big joke and the entire academic nation is looking at this mess and saying "what a bunch of silly hillbillies those people at A&M must be. And right now I cannot say that I disagree with them.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:52 AM
Comment Title:
Since we are on the topic of cost cutting measures. Why don't we not put ourselves in the position of having to pay someone else in the future over 700 grand to leave quietly?
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Posted by:
NOTAGAIN On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 4:26 PM
Comment Title: More Press on da Way !
There will be a time in the very near future, when the entire board of regents, chancellor, and da out going govenor will have to answer to the mass media. NO stone left unturned. You talk about legistlative, womens groups, and minority groups. So, it's best to get your fifth annendment cards ready ! It ain't over just yet. You'd be asking, Why the flies are following you all over town ? Remember the Alamo, Alright ?
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:42 PM
Comment Title: I agree
Well, I do certainly agree with you that Mr. McKinney has not served the university well in his post. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see him replaced.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:36 PM
Comment Title:
The problem is that while the Board of Regents may all be people of distinction in their own fields, they manifestly failed to do anything to prevent micro- and mismanagement by a Chancellor who has no academic authority and who should not have been appointed in the first place. As former President Bowen said yesterday in his op-ed, they have failed in their fiduciary duty to the university.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 2:27 PM
Comment Title: Encouraging
The most encouraging thing to me in this article is that the members of the board of regents have learned a lesson in how to be circumspect when commenting to the media. If chancellor McKinney had been that smart earlier in the game we would not be in the sorry situation we are in now.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:40 PM
Comment Title: To "what to do next?"
I think your suggestion is at least as--if not more--reasonable than most of the comments I have seen related to this issue in the past several days.
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Posted by:
aggie 85 On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:37 PM
Comment Title: What to do next?
What do we do now? Legalizing pot is the best answer.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:21 PM
Comment Title:
I have spent some time today looking at the biographies of the members of the boards of Rrgents at A&M, UT, and Texas Tech. Not surprisingly---given Perry's length of tenure and the usual 6-year term for the regents at all of these schools---every one of them was appointed by Rick Perry. I would expect that he would appoint people with whom he is acquainted or who have come highly recommended---kind of like an executive hiring employees, you know? Does anyone in a position to hire people seek out people they do not know and have no reason to trust are attuned to their philosophies about how the enterprise should be run? And I can certainly see why all of these people on the boards of all of these schools would be recommended. They are people of accomplishment in a variety of fields: law, medicine, business, etc. At all 3 schools, the majority of people on each board have some sort of tie to that school, but in every case there are also people who graduated from somewhere else. But in every case, they are people who have distinguised themselves by success in their careers and public service. I think insults to the board are childish and inappropriate. And I do not see why something that was successful in a large corporation would not necessarily be successful at an academic institution. There are similarities in management problems across all types of organizations. And the fact that the BOR did not come out of the meeting on Monday with a fully formed plan that they were ready to present to the hungry media troubles me not at all. On the contrary, had they done so, I think I would be worried that it had not been well thought out---not to mention that it would have failed to involve everyone's cherished shared governance. Comparing any of this to the Third Reich is an example of fallacious reasoning at best and deamgoguery at worse. What a shallow argument. Yes, the next step is unclear. New initatives always start out with a certain lack of clarity. This is news?
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:02 PM
Comment Title: The Real Reasons for Tuition Hikes????
What you aren't being told about is the ridiculous spending deals made to ride out the contracts of ex-coaches and high administrative persons. There are many reasons for tuition hikes that the good ole boys are not coming forth with. God bless Murano! What a loss to A&M. Universities and corporations are tremendously different, as are their operations. The Board sees them as equals because they are obviously not familiar with State university and agency business operations. It is time for the Board to resign, as well as the Perry befriended Dr.(medical, that is). The only way to prevent this disgrace from occuring again is to modify State Statutes with regard to the Governor appointing Board members and administrative officials. True shared governance would enable faculy, staff and students to have a voice on the most qualified persons to fill these positions. By the way, the Agencies within the TAMUS operate separately from the universities. They do not effect tuition at all. Get real, regents,if you are truly looking to benefit our once great university, get out of our hair and town!
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Posted by:
MCG On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 10:34 AM
Comment Title: Ridiculous
The embarrassment continues. So following what was done at Exxon? Sounds like a great plan. Lots of correlation there. How about trying something that was done at other institutes of higher learning? Maybe Stallings has some great ideas from his experience as a football coach. Such great minds Perry has put on this board.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 10:21 AM
Comment Title:
Merging the offices of Chancellor and President reminds me of the time in 1933 when Adolf Hitler merged the offices of Reich Chancellor and Reich President ...Let's all keep a stiff right arm and practice yelling "Heil Perry"
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 9:02 AM
Comment Title: Former Students Concerned
My family members (2 Aunts,2 Uncles, and my grandfather) who are former students are calling me asking me what is going on concerning this mess. Current students are not the only ones upset about how this is being handled.
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Posted by:
On:
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 7:59 AM
Comment Title: Interpretation: There is no plan
There is no plan, except to watch how things develop for the Republican primary. This is a temporizing move, but badly timed. TAMU does have a nice bump from the legislature in funding, and this is a terrific time to recruit in higher education. Over half of U.S. colleges and universities have hiring freezes, and TAMU could make a move on the market with some first-rate hires. But this kind of effort needs direction and attention, not in-fighting and political intrigue. TAMU is about to lose yet another opportunity to advance its status.
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