Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Baylor University is a great university, and it should have a great university president.
The desired qualities of the next president are many. I’d start with a proven record of leadership in a university environment. Not far behind: outstanding academic credentials, successful fundraising abilities, effective communication skills, a strategic thinker, team builder and cheerleader-in-chief.
And because a university’s constituencies are so vocal, he or she should be able to walk on water!
- 07-19-09 David Brooks, guest column: Second-guessers misrepresent '2012' designs
- 06-24-09 Charles S. Madden, guest column: 'Baylor 2012' painted as something it never was
- 06-03-09 Joseph Armes, guest column: Opportunities endless for next Baylor president
- 05-30-09 Rufus Spain, guest column: Root of Baylor's rift: Vision 2012
- 05-27-09 Kenneth L. Hall, guest column: Baylor's next president needs a Christian, global view
- 05-20-09 Henry Walbesser, guest column: BU regents should reconsider their goals carefully
- 05-13-09 Clifton Robinson, guest column: Waco's wellbeing key to next Baylor president
- 05-06-09 James G. Vaughan, guest column: Next Baylor president must be immersed in city
- 04-29-09 Patricia Pack, guest column: Our next boss at Baylor should be approachable, a listener
- 04-22-09 David Lacy, guest column: Entire Baylor family must agree on the next president
- 04-15-09 Robert C. Cloud, guest column: Baylor faculty seek 'first among equals' for top spot
- 04-08-09 Bryan Fonville, guest column: Trust issue crucial in Baylor's next president
- 04-05-09 Carlos Sanchez: We're asking: What qualities should Baylor's next president possess?
Because Baylor and Waco are inextricably linked, its new president will be able to achieve some of his or her goals, or fail to realize them, based on the size, diversity, wealth, vitality, quality and perception of Greater Waco. That’s a fact.
Likewise Greater Waco will become a better-educated, richer, more sustainable place, or not, based in part on decisions made at Baylor.
So the board of regents should select a new leader for Baylor who will recognize the interdependence of the university and community, and they should make it an imperative that the president provide leadership in Greater Waco and be fully engaged with and accessible to its leaders.
I’d like to see the new president serve as board chair of the Greater Waco Chamber, campaign chair of United Way and as an active board member of such organizations as the Waco Homeless Coalition, Waco Industrial Foundation, Community Visioning Project, Community Race Relations Coalition and the newly formed Education Alliance.
But not just the president. We need more Baylor faculty and staff to be involved in addressing the many challenges we face. The new president should expect it.
A starting point would be for the new president to look for ways to utilize Greater Waco as a living laboratory where the university’s best and brightest — students and faculty — are engaged in applying classroom knowledge and research to real-life applications in our city.
Baylor’s School of Education has a 15-year partnership with the Waco Independent School District in which Baylor students intern in assigned classrooms for their entire senior year. A similar curriculum combining academics and work experiences could be established for students in each of the university’s 150 baccalaureate, 76 master’s and 22 doctoral programs.
The new president should actively assist the Greater Waco Chamber in focusing recruitment efforts on knowledge-based businesses including both “export” and regional-servicing employment. Exporting goods and services from the region brings cash into our economy.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of the university and the city will come as Interstate 35 is reconstructed. The new president should advocate for a highway design that doesn’t further separate Baylor from rest of the city. It’s in our mutual best interest to develop the campus to the downtown corridor with shops, cafes, residences and offices where faculty, staff and citizens can live, learn and work together, where walking, cycling and transit are attractive alternatives to the automobile.
And the new president should work with the city and private developers to build moderate and high-density housing at both market rate and affordable levels within the Greater Downtown area — for faculty, staff and citizens.
None of these initiatives can be as successful unless Baylor continues to grow as a nationally recognized university. So the president’s first priority should be to lead it to quantifiable greatness.
Baylor is well known as “the largest Baptist university in the world.” What if it were equally recognized for its research prowess?
A laudable vision going forward would be to gain membership in the Association of American Universities, which is made up of 60 pre-eminent public and private research universities.
James G. Vaughan Jr. is president and chief executive officer of the Greater Waco Chamber.
