AA News – “Judge considered for EMU presidency”

10 Responses to AA News – “Judge considered for EMU presidency”

1. Mark Higbee | February 27, 2008 at 5:45 pm | Reply

   Thanks for the post, Chris. What are you thoughts on this story?

2. Alum | February 27, 2008 at 6:01 pm | Reply

   Mark:

   I told all of you about this months ago.

3. BrianAlum | February 27, 2008 at 8:45 pm | Reply

   Well, after all of the comments about his candidacy on this board and who knows where else, I guess it isn’t a surprise that the Ann Arbor News was aware of it. All they needed to do was prod enough people, enough times, and they would get their story. I’m surprised the News didn’t print something sooner.

   I also didn’t realize he is a faculty member at Eastern. Interesting.

4. sitedad | February 27, 2008 at 9:25 pm | Reply

   The AAN says he was an adjunct faculty– e.g., someone EMU hires part-time on a class-by-class basis. This semester, he’s teaching two classes, one in criminology and one in poli-sci. That’s not the same as a full-time and tenure-track faculty person.

   One of the concerns that faculty have had about Shelton and other non-academic candidates is that they don’t have the experiences of being a faculty member. Being a part-timer is a lot closer than I thought Shelton was to being an academic, but it is not quite the same as being someone who has gone through the process of tenure and promotion, who has had to have had a scholarly agenda, who has had to develop curriculum, advise students, and just do the other business of a department.

   Personally, I can imagine a situation in which someone from outside of academia could come in and be a good university president, as long as it was clear that the academic side of things were run by a more empowered Provost. And I don’t know anything about Shelton one way or the other; I’ll keep an open mind during the interview process. But I guess what I find sort of curious about the whole Shelton thing is the way it’s coming out.

   BrianAlum might be right– maybe Larcom is just following a rumor from here (and if that’s the case, shouldn’t there be something like “as rumored on EMUTalk.org” in the article?) or someplace else. But I have a feeling that there were also powers that be who either did nothing to stop that story from running and/or who kind of nudged the story along. The opening paragraph says “sources confirm” that Shelton is being considered, and then the article quotes later from “the sources” of Shelton and Jim Stapleton (and it eludes to Wilbanks too, though it doesn’t quote him directly). So, if I was just going to guess, I would say that this is not a completely innocent story that was simply the result of scrappy reporting. But that’s just an educated guess.

5. BrianAlum | February 27, 2008 at 10:44 pm | Reply

   Sitedad: Thanks for the clarification on the “faculty” definition. I guess there would be a significant difference relative to one who had to go through the rigors of acquiring tenure, though I suspect that “adjuncts” might have some duties to develop a curriculum and advise students. They can’t just show up, teach a class, and not make themselves available for student contact/questions/advising between teaching sessions, or can they?

   Any idea how long Shelton has served as an adjunct at EMU (or elsewhere)? Only since he applied for the presidency, or has he been at it much longer? I would be inclined to view favorably someone who has regularly taught classes, regular faculty or not, over someone who has never experienced the classroom from the “front of the room” perspective. Though, I would also discount this experience if he only taught since he applied for the position (self-serving?).

   You made an interesting observation about a non-, or perhaps in this case, quasi-academic, serving in the role of a president while a university simultaneously maintains a relatively strong leader on the academic side of the house. It does sound like EMU may have something in place like this with Loppnow as the “Executive VP.” Wasn’t he “merely” the provost prior to Fallen leaving? I would think that in a normal organizational structure, the provost would be relied upon to manage the academic side while consulting the president, so I don’t know what increased value is gained by having a more empowered EVP.

   I am going to keep an open mind until I see who else is in the mix. Shelton may bring the right mix of Lansing connections, ability to fundraise, and respect and assurance that students and their parents desperately need right now. Maybe he won’t. One thing is for certain (in my mind): we really need to stop the flow of freshmen who apparently are not reenrolling at EMU for their subsequent years. I am convinced this will have a long-term negative impact that, for each class of freshmen that we don’t return in significant numbers, will literally take years to recover from. Keep in mind that EMU is about to get another dose of regional and national notoriety when the Orange Taylor trial begins Round 2 this spring (I think?). If we can’t get students and their parents to have confidence in their safety with a judge at the helm, then who can we? But of course, it’s all relative, I suppose.

   Also, I would never expect the Ann Arbor News to give this site credit for the leak or presumption of an individual candidate – that would be asking far too much of them. The tone of the article, though, does give one the suggestion that the concept may very well have originated from this board. After all, with the postings we have had here, it does seem that Shelton’s hand may have been forced since several posters, perhaps even search committee members, have been posting here telling us specifically that he was a candidate. Personally, I can’t see why he would want his name out there right now, and maybe he had no choice by the Ann Arbor News. If I was a candidate, I would much rather have my name withheld so that my qualifications are viewed concurrently in light of the other candidates rather than given the “privilege” of exclusive and extended criticism by all of us… Perhaps he was the only local candidate to apply or make the first cut, which I guess would be enough to make the local newspaper press for the story.

6. cbylone | February 27, 2008 at 11:10 pm | Reply

   Not that I am a supporter or not a supporter of Shelton I just want to point something out about Shelton. He does have his law degree, which in his field is a terminal degree.

   J.D. = Juris Doctor.

   I just wanted to remind everyone, even, myself that he does hold his terminal degree in his field.

   Also some other facts on Presidents overall in the USA. (this info is taken from the report produced by the American Council on Education titled The American college President, 2000 edition. I would have the 2007 stats but I need to check the book out from Halle again, this is the version that is down loadable for free)

   ALL NUMBERS are for the total of all Public Colleges and Universities

   Highest Degree Earned
   Numbers in %
   Bachelor’s = 0.1
   Master’s = 7.9
   Ph.D. = 56.4
   Ed.D = 30.7
   M.D. = 1.6
   Other Health = 0.4
   J.D. or other law degree = 2.7
   Other = 0.6
   (This may not total 100% because of rounding)

   Presently holds tenure as a faculty member
   Yes = 87.6%
   No = 12.4%

   Immediate prior position
   President/CEO = 27.8%
   Senior Executive = 21.5%
   Chief Academic Officer = 25.8%
   Executive/Administrative = 7.1%
   Dean = 12.1%
   Chair/faculty = 2.2%
   Outside Higher Education = 3.6%

   Tenure as faculty member in prior position
   Yes = 40.4%
   No = 59.6%

   I would suggest if anyone is interested in seeing the nation view of the College President you should read the 2000 or the 2007 edition (figures are about the same in both editions). It is an eye opening reading.

7. Mark Higbee | February 28, 2008 at 2:51 am | Reply

   Judge Shelton has been teaching as an adjunct at EMU for some years. And to the poster who asked — can an adjunct just show up and teach their class? Yes, they can. That’s all they are hired to do, and they are not deemed qualified to participate in curriculum development, at EMU or other universities. Adjuncts, as a group, lack academic freedom, hence they are, as a group, not suited to developing a curriculum, no matter how qualified they may be for individual courses. And at EMU, most adjuncts are hired solely because they are cheaper than full time faculty, not because of their exceptional qualifications.

8. sitedad | February 28, 2008 at 8:38 am | Reply

   I agree pretty much with everything that Mark said, except that I think the reasons why adjunct don’t systematically develop curriculum, advise students, run the business of the department, etc., has more to do with not being empowered and invested in the institution and not being paid enough and less to do with academic freedom per se. But BrianAlum seems to express a sort of “that’s hard to believe” voice when he asks if it’s possible adjuncts to just show up and teach their classes; nope, that’s typically what happens.

   I should point out at least three things though. First, there are a variety of different roles for adjuncts. Speaking just for what I know in the English department, where most of our sections of first year composition are taught by part-timers, we do try to do what we can to include/empower them, to get curriculum input/ideas and the like from them, and those folks (because they are on the “front line” of new first year students) do end up giving a lot of new students at least informal advice. Second, most of these folks– at least in the English department– do a great job. It’s just that they aren’t doing the same kind of job as faculty.

   Third, as far as I can tell, Shelton has been doing the kind of work that is ideal for adjunct instructors: he brings a certain body of knowledge about specific topics in from outside of the academy. In theory, he’s helping build those kinds of connections between “the real world” and the academic one. Now, I don’t know how he does or how he has time to do it, but that’s another issue.

   As I understand the organizational scheme at EMU, the president has been more or less directly in charge of a lot of things– or at least this was the case. Recall that the VP of student affairs reported directly to the president, as I believe is (was?) still the case. I’m imaging a situation in which more of these kinds of functions report first to the Provost and in which the main job of the president is to be a good representative of the institution an to raise money. Of course, I’m also imagining a situation where the BoR doesn’t try to micromanage things either.

   As for the first year student thing: well, during the height of the Dickinson murder case/cover-up last year, EMU had its biggest “explore EMU” event ever. That doesn’t make sense to me, but there you have it. I think the problems with keeping first year students here are multi-faceted and include things like letting in students who are under-prepared or otherwise at risk; bad scheduling/class offerings; parking; the crappy nature of the Michigan economy; and the less than ideal job prospects for many of the folks in EMU’s main “industry,” teaching. From my point of view, I think the first one is the most significant: if you let in students who aren’t ready or committed to college, they are likely going to drop out. If the goal is to retain students (and we could debate this goal, certainly), then we ought to be more selective about who we let in.

9. susan haynes | February 28, 2008 at 4:24 pm | Reply

   Thanks, Chris, very enlightening comment.

10. cbylone | February 28, 2008 at 7:12 pm | Reply

    Susan,

    Thanks! If anyone would like to find out any other stats just let me know…I will see what I can find….