Daily Staff Reporter
The University's first open presidential search, with its lack of private discussions between the regents and finalists, may have helped Dartmouth Provost Lee Bollinger capture the 12th University presidency.
Since several members of the board already knew Bollinger from his seven-year term as Law School dean, they didn't need private sessions to get to know him.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Lee Bollinger is our man," said Regent Daniel Horning (R-Grand Haven) during his endorsement of the Dartmouth provost.
"It's unfortunate for the other candidates. This is a time in Michigan's history where we have to have a president who can hit the ground running," Horning said.
Bollinger spent 21 years at the University before he left for New Hampshire in 1994.
While it's likely that Bollinger still may have been chosen in a less open selection process, the structure used by the board helped his candidacy, said Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison.
"Since the regents had so little knowledge of the candidates, it seemed clear that the one who had a prior track record with them would have an inside track," Harrison said. "There was some kind of spillover of the process to Lee. There is a cause and effect there."
One of the other four finalists, Provost Larry Faulkner of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, criticized a court mandate requiring the meetings be open. He said the lack of private interaction between regents and the candidates also affected the finalists.
"You learn so little that you can't know enough about the institution when it comes time to make a decision," Faulkner said.
Provost J. Bernard Machen said he thought Bollinger would have been chosen under any search process.
"At the end of the day, they may well have chosen him under any search conditions," Machen said. "The strengths that he brings to this University would make him attractive to us under any search process."
Bollinger would not comment on whether the open process helped him, noting that he couldn't see the other candidates' interviews or town-hall meetings.
"I think other people have a broader perspective on the pluses and minuses of the open process, and I would want to engage in a discussion with them to make up my mind," Bollinger said yesterday.
LSA Dean Edie Goldenberg - the finalist who withdrew her name just hours before the advisory committee's recommendations were announced - was the only finalist who currently serves at the University.
The lack of private meetings may have been a roadblock for any internal candidate who felt they needed to discuss their prior activities with the regents.
"An internal candidate in any job will have more of a sense of things he/she might want to iron out with board members," Harrison said last week. "That person might be more acutely conscious of the need to have a sense of who the board was."
Former University President Robben Fleming said the process used during this search worked to Bollinger's advantage.
"(The process) puts an enormous premium on naming the person you know already," Fleming said. "It happens that Lee's a superb person and it's therefore a very good appointment. But the procedure's terrible."
Goldenberg said that she didn't believe it was "a foregone conclusion" that the regents chose Bollinger, but she said his previous experience with the University will make his first months as president easier.
"Anybody coming into this role will have a lot to learn, but he will have an advantage," Goldenberg said. "He knows a lot of these people. I think he will be able to step in and be effective immediately."
- Daily Staff Reporter Jeff Eldridge contributed to this report.