Dr. Mary Sue Coleman was appointed as the 13th president of The University of Michigan in 2002. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, university presidents, on average, stay in their jobs 8.5 years. Coleman, then, in keeping her post for a dozen years and retiring from it, has beaten the odds. While the sixth highest paid public university president in the U.S. with a compensation package that tops $918,000 per year, she is by no means the University of Michigan’s highest paid employee.
In fact, in each of the 12 years she led the multi-billion dollar nonprofit university, she earned just a fraction of what the school’s various football coaches did, including the current coach, Brady Hoke, who holds an undergraduate degree from Ball State University. Coleman earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from Grinnell College and her doctorate in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina. For 19 years she was a member of the biochemistry faculty at the University of Kentucky.
While Dr. Coleman’s official biography lists her academic and administrative accomplishments, one that is left out is the fact that when her college’s non-tenured faculty decided to unionize, she did not fight their decision. It was a bold statement at a time when university presidents across the country were battling non-tenured faculty unionization drives. At George Washington and Xavier Universities, leaders have fought non-tenured faculty—some of the lowest paid professionals on campuses—and used a variety of tactics, including the firing of union leaders. At George Washington University in D.C., the president of that institution battled his own non-tenured faculty and then refused to recognize the union for 7 years after the faculty voted in favor of collective bargaining.
When RichRod embarrassed the University of Michigan nationally by bringing NCAA sanctions on a football program which had never been accused of a major violation, Coleman got rid of him. After all, hers was the first signature on the final page of his contract.
According to data gathered by the American Council on Education (ACE), the University of Michigan’s 14th president will be a married white male who is 61 years old, holds a doctorate in education and has served in his current position for seven years—a profile that has not varied greatly over the previous 25 years. Again, according to data compiled by ACE, While women have increased their representation (26 percent in 2011, up from 23 percent in 2006), the proportion of presidents who are racial and ethnic minorities declined slightly, from 14 percent in 2006 to 13 percent in 2011. However, when minority-serving institutions are excluded, only 9 percent of presidents belong to racial/ethnic minority groups, unchanged from 2006.
It’s more likely the next president will come from within Academe than from outside Academe. The chief academic officer (CAO) position remains the most typical precursor to the presidency—34 percent of presidents served as CAO or provost prior to becoming president, up from 31 percent in 2006. The percentage of presidents entering that role from outside academe has increased, however. In 2011, 20 percent of presidents’ immediate prior positions were outside academe, up sharply from 13 percent in 2006 and 15 percent in 2001.
Andrea Fischer Newman, the vice chairwoman of the Board of Regents, told the Detroit Free Press, “There’s no front-runner. There’s no one even in the process.”
There is, however, lots of speculation. Some of the people mentioned include, Nancy Cantor, president of Syracuse University, and Theresa Sullivan, president of the University of Virginia, both have to top the list. Both were provosts at Michigan. Others with administrative experience at Michigan and at other universities include Timothy White, the chancellor of California State University, and Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford.
The 14th president will have some big high-heeled shoes to fill. Dr. Coleman, the first woman to head Michigan, leaves a legacy of large construction projects, aggressive hiring of interdisciplinary faculty and the most successful fund-raising effort in the university’s history, a $3.2 billion dollar campaign.