In The ND University System, The Presidents Are The Probelm

I forgot to post this earlier today, but last night I was on Chris Berg’s show on Valley News Live, and he had a great analogy for the problems in higher education.

He talked about the structure as though it were a football team. We have the State Board of Higher Education, which is like the general manger for the team. We have the chancellor, who is like the head coach. Then we have the university presidents, who are the line coaches and offensive coordinators, etc.

The GM hires the coach, and the coach is in charge of setting policy for the assistant coaches. But what we have going on in the North Dakota university system is the assistant coaches getting together and trying to undermine the head coach and even the GM.

Here’s our discussion:

The problems in higher education in North Dakota are larger than Chancellor Shirvani. Whether or not you like his policies, he was hired govern the system. He was hired to govern the university presidents

The presidents don’t want to be governed, and they’re trying to push him out. But not by speaking publicly, and not by voicing their concerns to elected leaders, but rather by working behind the scenes with political plots and intrigue to undermine his time in office.

Whatever happens with Chancellor Shirvani, we aren’t likely to see any improvement in the university system until some of these university presidents are asked to move along.