CASE Advancement Summit 2007: Notes, Quotes

I spoke at the the CASE Advancement Summit in Chicago earlier this month, and I also sat in on a variety of presentations. I recorded a few things to share on Alumni Futures. If you were at the conference and had a different interpretation or recollection of what I've written about here, please add your thoughts via Comment on the Alumni Futures site. Or perhaps you heard something noteworthy that you want to share - please do so.

• From a public university alumni director at a breakfast roundtable: "We cut out several class reunions and those classes' reunion giving did not change." The implication is that reunions don't increase those classes' gifts. But could there be a secondary (positive) effect of those alumni getting together, that will not be reflected in that year's totals?

• CASE President John Lippincott during a discussion of China's economy:

"Beijing has more millionaires than New York and London. But their charitable giving is one-fortieth that of their American counterparts'."

• Kenyon College President Georgia Nugent:

"I'm sick of the over-use of the word "accountability." How about "responsibility"? Is anyone held "accountable" for a success?"

She described the current hunger for holding higher education leaders "accountable" as being "third-party [and] fear-induced."

• Alan Merten, President of George Mason University quoted Raymond "Chip" Mason (of Legg Mason) on ethics. Mason likened some questionable practices to standing so close to the line on a tennis court when serving, that some chalk gets on your shoes:

"You don't want to get chalk on your shoes. You are technically on the correct side of the line, but if you're close enough to get chalk on your shoes, you're too close."

• Ohio State's prodigal Chancellor E. Gordon Gee said, "You have to be passionate about the institution, not just a hired gun who can do this for anyone." I found this ironic, coming from the person who describes himself as someone "who has been the president of more colleges and universities than anyone else," and who announced his departure from Vanderbilt the day after making these statements.

• Merten again, with a winter sports metaphor this time: "If you don't fall down when you're skiing, you need to try a tougher hill." This implies that we should always be learning and that we should find new challenges - hard ones - and tackle them until they're not hard enough to make us fail. Then repeat the process.

• Finally, when asked, "What's the best idea you've had as president?" Merten replied:

"The best thing that I did was that I got out to meet alumni. Someone said that your university can be good without the support of its alumni, but it cannot be great without the support of its alumni."

Profound truth? Or empty platitude? What's your take?

Comments

[Michael Mitchell]

I was not in Chicago for the summit this year, but from the quotes you've shared, it seems like a lot of platitude.

I tend to disagree with Gee's quote, "You have to be passionate about the institution, not just a hired gun who can do this for anyone."

I think that in order to be successful at what we do (maybe different for presidents, but I doubt it) we have to be passionate about excellence. Gee's statement seems to downplay the role of hard work and commitment to the craft of advancing higher education.

I may be passionate about the university I attended (I am) but that is not what makes me succeed at my job. When I succeed, it's because I've taken the time to understand the big picture, as well as the small details. I succeed when I plan well and when I follow through with the things I've said I was going to do. When I succeed, I succeed because I'm passionate about doing things right because I know that it will reflect badly on my reputation if I don't. I don't know about others, but success for me comes because achieving excellence is important to me. Could I achieve excellence at an institution I wasn't passionate about? Certainly. Would I stay long? Probably not. Would the university be in better place when I left than when I arrived? I hope so.

This idea is a tough one though, because it's easy to confuse being passionate about what you do with being passionate about who you do it for.

A lot of people enjoy what they do (and are very good at it) without necessarily being passionate about who they do it for.
Yes, they may bounce around from organization to organization, but if they are passionate about achieving excellence, the organizations they serve will always benefit. The problem for organizations, it seems, is that it's near impossible to keep this kind of person for an extended period of time (unless, of course, they are passionate about the institution they work for). Maybe that is the point Gee was trying to make.

I don't know Gee, nor am I familiar with his track record, but aside from the possibility that he might have an attention deficit disorder, it could be possible that he has been president at so many institutions because he is so good at his craft that other universities recognize that and are always courting him away from his current post.

It would be interesting to see if the universities Gee has captained in the past feel like they are in a better place as an institution of higher learning because of his tenure at the helm. Do they refer back to the "Gee days" with fond memories or great relief that he's moved on?

[Andrew Shaindlin]

Well I waited a year before responding, in the hope that somebody else would share their view. As an alumnus of Brown U., one institution that Gee headed briefly (I would not say he "led" it), I can state pretty clearly that he is not missed there at all - in fact, some say he was all but chased off the campus for appearing to renege on his commitment to the school. On the other hand, Ohio State couldn't wait for him to return, sounds like.