Monthly Archives: April 2008

Susan Martin Googled, but just barely

Posted on April 30, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Susan Martin is perhaps the most traditional of the candidates for this position (a move from provost to president makes a lot more sense than a move from judge or even K-12 superintendent), but she easily has the lowest profile. Googling her, I turned up a couple articles about her moving from GVSU to UM-Dearborn (like this one), her name on a conference program in Poland, and the profile that was in today’s AANews, “EMU candidate called a pragmatist.” That’s it.

So, I don’t know. She seems like she would be a perfectly competent administrator. But as to her ability to do stuff like “heal the community” or have much political clout in Lansing, well, that is a bit of a mystery to me. If anyone knows anything else about her, please pass it along, but at this stage, I guess we won’t really learn that much about her until she comes to campus.

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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search

Presidential candidate wiki

Posted on April 30, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Abby just sent me information on this: some folks in the library have set up a wiki on the EMU Presidential Search, which has a lot of good info and some good ideas on doing more research on these candidates.  A very helpful and cool resource!

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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search

These are the questions, and the questions are these

Posted on April 30, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Well, at least for faculty: EMU Faculty Council president Russ Larson sent around an email the other day that outlined the format and the questions process for the “final four” EMU President candidates at the faculty sessions. I am assuming that these are far from a secret for the candidates themselves, so I thought I’d pass them along here. These apply to faculty, but I have to assume that other “stakeholder” groups will have similar formats.
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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search, Faculty Life

AAN begins series on EMU Prez candidates

Posted on April 29, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Today’s Ann Arbor News story, “Candidate’s EMU ties emotional, professional,” is about Michael Flanagan. Basically, it’s a kind of “fluff/feel good piece.” Not that Flanagan has a lot of skeletons in his closet or something, but it isn’t exactly what I would call “investigative” journalism. The biggest rap against him in the piece seems to be that he has an “ambitious agenda.”

There is a lot of stuff here about Governor Jennifer Granholm’s sudden interest in EMU, as others have already mentioned in comments:

Among Flanagan’s prominent boosters is Granholm, who has called members of the EMU Board of Regents to express her support. Granholm believes Flanagan “would be an outstanding president” of EMU, said Liz Boyd, the governor’s press secretary.

Boyd cited the way Flanagan brought people together to make critical changes in Michigan’s educational system. “The governor believes (Flanagan) can provide the same kind of leadership at Eastern Michigan,” Boyd said. “Mike Flanagan has a vision of what education should be in Michigan and the role EMU should play in helping (the state) get there.”

The state board of education recently renewed Flanagan’s contract, despite his interest in the EMU job. Boyd says it will be difficult to fill Flanagan’s place, but the governor’s interest indicates the importance she attaches to the Eastern presidency.

“EMU needs a leader,” Boyd said. “And they need a healer. Mike Flanagan can provide leadership, be a healer and move the university forward.”

So, a three-way tug of war between Wilbanks, Stapleton, and Granholm perhaps?

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Posted in EMU President, EMU President Search, In the media...

Community shindigs with EMU Prez candidates

Posted on April 29, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Since I’m a faculty-type, I’ve been focused-in on the meetings that the four candidates are having with faculty next week, Monday through Thursday.  But there are many other meet-n-greet opportunities, and I just came across info on East-cross.com that the candidates will be meeting with various Ypsilanti community leaders at 5 pm on those dates.

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Posted in EMU President

Googling Donald Shelton

Posted on April 28, 2008 by | 3 Comments

And then, there’s “the judge.”

Donald Shelton has been mentioned around campus and on this blog for months and months as a possible candidate. Shelton has been mentioned/floated on EMUTalk.org as a candidate for the job of EMU President since at least late October 2007, Shelton alone was the subject of a late February AANews article speculating on candidates for the job, and it was the mysterious Alum (I honestly don’t know who this person is, by the way) who wrote this back on October 27, 2007:

Don Shelton will be your next President. Qualifications: Attorney, Circuit Court Judge, past EMU Regent, Democrat. The Regents don’t seem to be listening and are still pulling strings behind the scenes for very important hires at Eastern.

So, what does a Google search turn up on the man who is easily the best known and discussed candidate?
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Posted in EMU President

emYou! The Magazine now online too

Posted on April 28, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Check out the web site for that scrappy local start-up magazine, emYou, which is at http://emyouthemagazine.com/.  It’s a work in progress, more or less like the magazine itself, but very promising and something I can link to.

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Posted in College Fun, In the media..., Student Life

Googling (and then some) Burnley

Posted on April 27, 2008 by | 3 Comments

My google searches last week for Michael Flanagan suggested to me someone who is a potentially interesting EMU presidential candidate. On the one hand, he has lots of administrative experience and he certainly has connections with state government; on the other hand, his experience is pretty K-12 centered, and he doesn’t hold a PhD. So we’ll see.

A bit of research on Ken Burnley suggests a more, um, problematic candidate.

More after the break, but the recent Detroit News article announcing the EMU candidates kind of sums up Burnley:

Among the most controversial of the finalists is Burnley, who led Michigan’s largest school district for five years beginning in 2000. After his departure, an independent report blamed Burnley and staff for Detroit schools’ financial crisis in 2006 that left the district a $200 million deficit. Burnley countered that the financial mess was due to student losses, higher benefit costs and less state aid.

Burnley was hired in Detroit when Freman Hendrix, now EMU’s chief government relations officer, chaired the Detroit school board.

And I assume the Hendrix connection is at least part of the reason why Burnley is in the mix.
Continue reading →

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Posted in EMU President Search

EMU Commencement news and/or picts?

Posted on April 27, 2008 by | 8 Comments

I won’t be at the ceremonies today, but if anyone has any picts or tidbits to share, feel free to do so– post a comment, send me an email, etc.

According to this article from the Detroit Freep.com, EMU’s speaker for both ceremonies will be Michael Morris, chief executive officer and president of American Electric Power. That will be fine, I guess, but if I was going to attend just one graduation today based only on speaker, I guess I’d have to go with Central Michigan, who is having “Chuck Leavell, pianist best known as the fifth Rolling Stone.”

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Posted in Academics, EMU Events, Faculty Life, Student Life

Jones 3rd highest NFL draft pick in EMU history

Posted on April 27, 2008 by | 11 Comments

There was some comments on this, and since I came across it online, I thought I’d go ahead and post a link to the story:
Jones is 3rd-highest pick in EMU history; Tennessee ends DL’s wait in 2nd round

Congratulations to him, though I still think we ought to drop down a division in football….

Update:

Jim Allen sent me a link to this article in the Tennessean.com, “Lineman’s strength:  his arms.” 

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Posted in In the media..., Sports