Marc Rowan: recommendation

Transcript context

…So, the boards are too big. You think they should be smaller, on average. I think boards have to be of a level where people can actually have a debate and set a series of guidelines. Like every board of directors, they are not doing and micromanaging these universities, just like boards of directors do not micromanage companies. They set strategy, they set tone, they set policy, and they pick a leader. Imagine if you were the past president of the University of Pennsylvania. You arrive after two very long-serving presidents. You are hired by this board of trustees, and you go to work. What’s your goal? What’s your plan? How is success judged? What’s the university’s policy on viewpoint diversity? What’s the university’s policy on free speech? The board of trustees, myself included — we never actually provided a roadmap for the president to be judged against, so it does not surprise me, when confronted with difficult situations, that there was no guide. I can’t imagine that’s a recipe for success. My own view — and this is what I’ve written at UPenn — is, trustees should first answer fundamental questions about policy and where they want the university to go in partnership with their academic peers, because the academy also has a series of rights and responsibilities. Once the university knows where it wants to go, hire the next president against a business plan, a strategic plan as to what they should do and what they should accomplish. It’s unfair to leave them directionless. Now, fortunately, UPenn is in a very good place right now, has a very stable pair of hands in Larry Jameson, who’s the interim president. So they’ll have time to do this. Why are academics, as a whole, so cowardly and conformist?…

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