YSU's Next President... Jim Tressel???

[guinzone]

A few weeks ago our current President surprisingly announced her resignation/retirement from Youngstown State after just three years on the job. Within hours, speculation around the community grew that Jim Tressel would be on the short list to replace Dr. Cynthian Anderson as President of YSU.

Those rumors have only grown in recent weeks. See today's Sunday article in the Youngstown Vindicator: http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/jan/13/y ... nt-tressel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am a fan of Tressel and respect him despite his misgivings at OSU. His ability to raise much needed money at YSU cannot be overlooked and I feel he would certainly have a vision for the future of the YSU Athletic Department, like when he was here at YSU. The DeBartolo Stadium Club, the 24 loge expansion, and the WATTS Indoor Practice Facility are all a product of this man. He also pushed YSU on the brink of moving up to the MAC in the mid 90s, but his current employer, Akron, and the other college 35 minutes away, Kent, wanted no part of it.

Tressel is still well loved here and a ton of people with influence at YSU want him as our next President. Although he doesn't have the letters Dr. In front of his name, his position at Akron is giving him some experience and some argue he is being groomed as their President.

I think we will be hearing more of this in the months ahead. I would LOVE to see Jim Tressel become our next President.

[93henfan]

You'd be in the MAC almost immediately.

[∞∞∞]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

[clenz]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

Tressel:YSU::Bill Brasky:Bears fans on SNL

Sent from the nexus of the universe

[kemajic]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

We have a PhD running ours that Tressel could run rings around.

[SuperHornet]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

[andy7171]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

Well that's the kiss of death for you trip!

[CAA Flagship]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

You see? You just pigeon-holed Tressel. How do you know he isn't capable of doing something other than coach football. Remember the great basketball player named Michael Jordan? Well he spent a few years playing pro baseball.........err.......umm..........ahem......Well he is now in a key management roll for an NBA franchise........err.........umm..........ahem. Shit, forget it. I don't know what I'm talking about.

[Franks Tanks]

The leader of an organization is often not the smartest guy in the room (CEO, President etc.), but they always have the ability to lead and get stuff done. Obviously Jim does not have experience in the academic side of the house, but he could raise funds, organize staff and lead. It actually could work.

[danefan]

The leader of an organization is often not the smartest guy in the room (CEO, President etc.), but they always have the ability to lead and get stuff done. Obviously Jim does not have experience in the academic side of the house, but he could raise funds, organize staff and lead. It actually could work.

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

You can always hire a good curriculum advisor.

[CAA Flagship]

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

Are you trying to normalize academia?

[Franks Tanks]

The leader of an organization is often not the smartest guy in the room (CEO, President etc.), but they always have the ability to lead and get stuff done. Obviously Jim does not have experience in the academic side of the house, but he could raise funds, organize staff and lead. It actually could work.

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

You can always hire a good curriculum advisor.

Agree 100%

Lafayette's current president, who is on his way to Haverford, is a career academic and generally a total douce. He spent about a year with Booze Allen Hamilton, but was a prof, dean and provost for the rest of his career. Our prior President was also a first class jackass when it came to athletics, but was overall a much better leader for the school. He was a big shot DC attorney and was deputy secretary of the Dept of Transportation before becoming President. Guys with experience in business or govt. appear to be in much better position to lead a university than some guy who spent the last 20 putting together ciriculum for the English Department.

[UNI88]

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

Performance at Purdue
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013 ... ge-dollars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We expect Daniels to run Purdue the way that, for two terms, he has managed Indiana state government: focusing less on the knee-jerk question of how many dollars are spent than on the value-adding question of how well they're spent. But by requesting a contract heavily reliant on his measurable performance — that is, by proposing that he be judged on results — he has set himself apart from other university leaders.

Granted, Daniels' base salary of $420,000 is nearly four times what he has earned as governor. If he meets every performance goal, his pay would rise by 30 percent, to $546,000. Even at that rate, Daniels would rank 10th among the 12 Big Ten presidents. His predecessor at Purdue, France A. Cordova, was paid $555,000 in fiscal 2011.

[AZGrizFan]

The leader of an organization is often not the smartest guy in the room (CEO, President etc.), but they always have the ability to lead and get stuff done. Obviously Jim does not have experience in the academic side of the house, but he could raise funds, organize staff and lead. It actually could work.

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

You can always hire a good curriculum advisor.

Career academics spend their entire lives living in a fantasy world, unclear how the real world actually works.

[danefan]

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

You can always hire a good curriculum advisor.

Career academics spend their entire lives living in a fantasy world, unclear how the real world actually works.

I also think more DI Athletic Departments need to be run by people that haven't spent their entire careers in administration and/or coaching.

[guinzone]

I definitely would agree with those that have mentioned that academia are completely out of touch with reality. Tressel could hit all spectrum's. He has the speaking power and "classiness" to appease those with money, he coached for a couple decades and can relate to students and student athletes, and as a coach and athletic director he was constantly in conversations with supporters of the university, many of which are average Joe's from Northeast Ohio.

[SuperHornet]

The leader of an organization is often not the smartest guy in the room (CEO, President etc.), but they always have the ability to lead and get stuff done. Obviously Jim does not have experience in the academic side of the house, but he could raise funds, organize staff and lead. It actually could work.

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

You can always hire a good curriculum advisor.

Is that about the same thing as hiring a corporate CEO as head football coach?

[Grizalltheway]

Wouldn't you want someone with extensive academic and/or business experience, preferably with a PhD? I really can't imagine the faculty would be fine with Jim Tressel as their boss. He'd probably make a good AD, but there aren't too many solid excuses as to why he should be running a university.

We have a PhD running ours that Tressel could run rings around.

Troof.

[AZGrizFan]

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

You can always hire a good curriculum advisor.

Is that about the same thing as hiring a corporate CEO as head football coach?

Uh, no.

And the position of piss-poor analogy guy is already filled, thank you very much.

[HI54UNI]

More Universities need to bring non-academics into leadership positions, IMO.

Performance at Purdue
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013 ... ge-dollars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We expect Daniels to run Purdue the way that, for two terms, he has managed Indiana state government: focusing less on the knee-jerk question of how many dollars are spent than on the value-adding question of how well they're spent. But by requesting a contract heavily reliant on his measurable performance — that is, by proposing that he be judged on results — he has set himself apart from other university leaders.

Granted, Daniels' base salary of $420,000 is nearly four times what he has earned as governor. If he meets every performance goal, his pay would rise by 30 percent, to $546,000. Even at that rate, Daniels would rank 10th among the 12 Big Ten presidents. His predecessor at Purdue, France A. Cordova, was paid $555,000 in fiscal 2011.

I wish Daniels was becoming president of something else.....

[UNI88]

Performance at Purdue
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013 ... ge-dollars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wish Daniels was becoming president of something else.....

You and me both! I thought he was the best candidate 2 years ago and my opinion hasn't changed. The editorial mentions him not running in 2016 but if he wants to he'll have likely have a great track record in business, government and academia.

[JohnStOnge]

My view will never prevail but I do not believe there should be minimum formal educational credentials requirements for anything. For instance I think it would be quite possible to produce good surgeons who learn how to be surgeons through means that do not include going to medical school and getting an MD. And I think there are people out there with no degrees at all that are better suited to teach college students about certain things than than some other people with PhDs are.

I think I'm kind of vindicated in my belief by stories like the one at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27mit.html?_r=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . The woman the article is about was Dean of Admissions at MIT for 28 years. She did a good job. She was well-liked and respected. She received awards for her excellent work. But she had to resign because she had represented herself as having several degrees when, in fact, she didn't have any.

She shouldn't have done that. But what she showed is that you don't necessarily need a college degree to do that job and do it well. And there's no way anybody would get that job if they said up front that they did not have a college degree. My bet would be that nobody would be considered for that position at MIT without a PhD or other Doctoral level degree.

[JohnStOnge]

From http://www.cracked.com/article_19248_6- ... ld_p2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are lots of stories like the one below. Unfortunately, as time has gone on the dogma about having to have certain credentials has gotten stronger so such stories are getting rarer and rarer. We really believe that someone has to have a certain minimum formal education level in order to be capable of doing a particular thing. A certain level of degree. And it's just not true.

Gregor Mendel

The Amateur:

An uneducated monk.

The Accomplishment:

Discovered how genetics work.

Ah, genetics. It can be used to detect rare diseases in people, it can give us an excuse for obesity and it can be used to create a breed of super-monsters with the body of a crocodile and the head of a chimpanzee (probably). So maybe you'd expect it to have been discovered by some super-scientist with a team of a hundred super-scientist assistants. If you did, you obviously didn't read this article's title.

We have previously mentioned how the modern theory of genetics was dismissed as bullshit at the time it was discovered. The reason is that the guy who did the discovering had nothing in the way of a resume. "Wait, who is out there saying he's discovered the very building blocks of life? Does he even own a white lab coat?"

Meet Gregor Mendel, monk extraordinaire. Born in 1822 in the Czech Republic, he couldn't afford to go to college. Apparently figuring that joining a monastery was at least 90 percent similar to being in a fraternity, he joined up with the Augustinian monastery at Brunn.

When he was gardening, he noticed some interesting things about his pea plants -- namely that certain traits such as color, pea size (heh) and a few other things were passed down from pea plant to baby pea plant. A couple of experiments and a "scientist hard at work" montage later and he'd accidentally walked into the discovery of modern genetics.

And this is no exaggeration: Mendel's experiments and results are the basis for everything we know about DNA and inheritance today. And as we said, no one believed him -- he was just a monk with a penchant for gardens. His work went unnoticed for decades. It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that Mendel's works were rediscovered.

It happened because a couple of other scientists were confused by the results of their own similar experiments and couldn't make sense of any of it. Supposedly, Hugo de Vries only finally came to grips with his findings once he'd read Mendel's work -- the work of a simple gardener and beekeeper, written nearly 50 years earlier.