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The nonsense with Lu Hardin at UCA these past few weeks has
reminded me of how stressed my family was some 20 years ago. My dad, a long
time history professor and prominent local university administrator, was a
finalist for the Presidency of UCA. He’d also been offered the Presidency of
East Central State University in Ada, Oklahoma.
Being the city boy I am, I’m not sure which scared me more.
Dad turned down East Central State and didn’t get the UCA
gig, all to the delight of everyone in his family….except him, I think. I got
my way, and until now didn’t really care. Knowing my Dad the way I do, I’m not
sure he cares either. He loves to teach research and write. And yet somehow his
colleagues have found a way to make him President of the Faculty Senate, and Chair
of the History Department (which he’s been in nearly 40 years) and the Foreign
Language Department (he only speaks English) at the same time. Somehow he’s
always called in when administration needs a mediator, a peacemaker, or a
decision maker that faculty and administration both can trust.
More on the jump
Dad’s never played the game of politics. He’d tell you he
wishes he’d campaigned for Bill Clinton- or at least he used to- but otherwise I
think we knocked on doors for one candidate for state representative when I was
about 8 years old. He’s always been about the business of educating students-
young and old- and doing what he believed he was called to do. Listen to his
account of the merger of LRU and UALR and you can see the passion and loyalty
he holds for the university then and now.
I’m convinced now in my more mature years he felt called to
lead some twenty years ago and should have become a university president. I
don’t think he would have applied for any job had he not felt compelled to take
the role. But he didn’t…he’s probably too nice, and probably didn’t push hard
enough, have his friends lobby and buy gifts enough, nor was he one to be
willing to offer favors to individuals and/or their children whether that meant
admission, housing or whatever. If he applied today, I’m fairly confident I
could make sure he wouldn’t lose out again.
I don’t know Les Wyatt, Lu Hardin or half the other state
public university presidents. I’m not sure I really want to. But I do know that
I’d like to believe that when choosing where my young sons will go to college
in a decade or two, I’d like them to go a place where the leadership is about
educating and not about enrollment, funds raised or buildings built. Business
is business for sure. And the primary business and focus of our tax payer
dollars that fund our public universities must be about retaining the educators
we need to educate our students.
Brad Williams grew up in Little Rock
and is a graduate of LR Public Schools, including Central
High School, and Yale
College in New
Haven, CT.
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