Spring Break
Presidential search resembles papal search in its secrecy
By: Rick Rojas
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: News
It's 2:30 p.m. on the day before Thanksgiving, and the nine regents of Texas A&M are called into a private meeting to discuss who will be the next president of the state's second-largest University.
It's been almost a year since Robert M. Gates, the maroon-bleeding agent of change, left for Washington. A couple of months have passed since the regents discarded the recommendations from the search committee which were conceived because of Gates' notion of shared governance. It's been a few weeks since faculty leadership threatened that the board's actions could hurt morale and make the new president enter under a dark cloud of controversy. Only a few days before, the press started reporting the drama.
Observers have said the presidential politics of A&M look more like those of the American president than an university president. Bigwigs in Austin have a hand in the matter, such as Gov. Rick Perry being a part of the behind-the-scenes discussions, according to some, and saving the job for himself, according to others. All the while, his handlers tell reporters the governor already has a job he loves. Names are thrown around like contenders in a horse race. Speculation has run rampant. The words of regents are analyzed like tea leaves, hoping to provide some iota as to where the search stands.
But it's not presidential. The politics of A&M are more papist than presidential.
When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, observers thought a Western European would be picked to bring the people back to church or someone from Africa to demonstrate the importance of the missionary work done around the world. Pundits, though, don't pick the pope. The cardinals do. The senior clergy of the Catholic Church sequester themselves, locked into a chapel, where they - alone - make the decision as to who the next pope will be. It doesn't matter what everyone else thinks, it's their call - and the proof is in their decision. The next pope wasn't from France or from Italy seeking to reclaim a stronghold, nor was he a missionary from the Third World. He was a conservative German and the previous pope's deputy.
The situation in College Station is much the same. A true revolutionary departed after a few years of what A&M stalwarts would consider radical change, stewarding the University on a track toward a future of academic growth. The not-so-unbiased observers are the faculty brought in by the revolutionary under the promise that A&M was venturing to the top of the academic mountain - and their voice was supposed to be heard along the way.
The regents of A&M are like the cardinals in Rome. Being the elders of the Aggie community, the elapsed time between their graduation from A&M and today is twice the age of students today and, with three zeroes behind it, is about how much most of them contributed financially to the campaigns of Perry.
Chancellor Mike McKinney, Perry's chief of staff before moving to the A&M system, formed a search committee consisting of faculty, community leaders and two regents when Gates left. They did their job, faculty leaders said, and provided a list of three candidates to the regents.
The regents said no - and decided to go about a search all their own. In the few months since the search committee was disbanded, the process of picking the next president of A&M is as cloaked and mysterious as the sequestered cardinals finding a pope. The meetings are closed to the public because personal matters are discussed. No names have yet to be released. In interviews, regents only say that they're working hard.
Does this mean they want to go in a completely different direction and are just waiting for the students and faculty to leave for vacation? The Board of Regents has a bad habit of doing this. Could they be saving the seat for the governor or a friend of the governor? A rumor along these lines has certainly made its way around. Or, are the regents simply unable to find a qualified candidate? Hardly.
Judging by the process so far, the results will be known when a plume of white smoke hovers high above the Board of Regents office in the center of campus, announcing the news to the world: Texas A&M has a president.
Rick Rojas, a sophomore political science major, covers the A&M presidential search for The Battalion.
It's been almost a year since Robert M. Gates, the maroon-bleeding agent of change, left for Washington. A couple of months have passed since the regents discarded the recommendations from the search committee which were conceived because of Gates' notion of shared governance. It's been a few weeks since faculty leadership threatened that the board's actions could hurt morale and make the new president enter under a dark cloud of controversy. Only a few days before, the press started reporting the drama.
Observers have said the presidential politics of A&M look more like those of the American president than an university president. Bigwigs in Austin have a hand in the matter, such as Gov. Rick Perry being a part of the behind-the-scenes discussions, according to some, and saving the job for himself, according to others. All the while, his handlers tell reporters the governor already has a job he loves. Names are thrown around like contenders in a horse race. Speculation has run rampant. The words of regents are analyzed like tea leaves, hoping to provide some iota as to where the search stands.
But it's not presidential. The politics of A&M are more papist than presidential.
When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, observers thought a Western European would be picked to bring the people back to church or someone from Africa to demonstrate the importance of the missionary work done around the world. Pundits, though, don't pick the pope. The cardinals do. The senior clergy of the Catholic Church sequester themselves, locked into a chapel, where they - alone - make the decision as to who the next pope will be. It doesn't matter what everyone else thinks, it's their call - and the proof is in their decision. The next pope wasn't from France or from Italy seeking to reclaim a stronghold, nor was he a missionary from the Third World. He was a conservative German and the previous pope's deputy.
The situation in College Station is much the same. A true revolutionary departed after a few years of what A&M stalwarts would consider radical change, stewarding the University on a track toward a future of academic growth. The not-so-unbiased observers are the faculty brought in by the revolutionary under the promise that A&M was venturing to the top of the academic mountain - and their voice was supposed to be heard along the way.
The regents of A&M are like the cardinals in Rome. Being the elders of the Aggie community, the elapsed time between their graduation from A&M and today is twice the age of students today and, with three zeroes behind it, is about how much most of them contributed financially to the campaigns of Perry.
Chancellor Mike McKinney, Perry's chief of staff before moving to the A&M system, formed a search committee consisting of faculty, community leaders and two regents when Gates left. They did their job, faculty leaders said, and provided a list of three candidates to the regents.
The regents said no - and decided to go about a search all their own. In the few months since the search committee was disbanded, the process of picking the next president of A&M is as cloaked and mysterious as the sequestered cardinals finding a pope. The meetings are closed to the public because personal matters are discussed. No names have yet to be released. In interviews, regents only say that they're working hard.
Does this mean they want to go in a completely different direction and are just waiting for the students and faculty to leave for vacation? The Board of Regents has a bad habit of doing this. Could they be saving the seat for the governor or a friend of the governor? A rumor along these lines has certainly made its way around. Or, are the regents simply unable to find a qualified candidate? Hardly.
Judging by the process so far, the results will be known when a plume of white smoke hovers high above the Board of Regents office in the center of campus, announcing the news to the world: Texas A&M has a president.
Rick Rojas, a sophomore political science major, covers the A&M presidential search for The Battalion.
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