Tim Skubick has some interesting observations about the EMU Presidential search on his blog, Skoop’s Blog, “EMU-1 Gov: Zippo.” Here’s a passage:
By going public with her endorsement of Flanagan, the governor put the board in a box. If they voted for him, it would look like the governor had “pressured” the board to make a decision.
That may have pleased the governor but might have been wrong for the university.
The fact is the EMU faculty wanted nothing to do with Flanagan who had neither a PhD nor any higher education experience to speak of. So from the get go, the governor should have know this was going to be a tough sell.
I think his assessment of the politics of all this are probably pretty accurate, and he goes on to say that “insiders” on the BoR were offended at the governor’s office strong-arm tactics. But it’s a little strong to say that the faculty wanted “nothing to do with Flanagan.” He was my first choice personally, and the voting/results reported from the faculty and union sessions suggested that the top two (maybe top three) candidates were pretty close. Interesting reading.
