Henry Walbesser, guest column: BU regents should reconsider their goals carefully

Henry Walbesser, guest column: BU regents should reconsider their goals carefully

HENRY WALBESSER Guest column

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Guest columns in the Trib by members of various Baylor University and community constituencies about the next president have proved interesting and instructive.

Some of these pieces advance a number of behavioral and experiential characteristics for the individual needed for this important post.

Some columns, however, advance a rather naive view of the purpose and membership of a great university.

BAYLOR AT A CROSSROADS

Perspectives on Baylor's new president from key constituencies

Coverage: Searching for Baylor's next president

The second paragraph of Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce President James G. Vaughan’s column on this subject [May 6] provided an excellent collection of desirable characteristics needed by the future president.

There are several academic vice presidents and provosts I know who possess all the characteristics named. Each of them I know to be a person of faith. Each is poised to be a presidential candidate at a tier-one university.

But none of these men and women are now members of Baylor, nor are any of them Baptists. (The one exception, in my opinion: former Baylor interim President Bill Underwood, now president of Mercer University.) All of this suggests that outreach for the next Baylor president must extend beyond the denominational membership required in past searches.

Perhaps this would be one step along the way of achieving the tier-one research university goal embedded in Baylor’s 2012 Vision.

The final paragraph of Vaughan’s column lacks a measure of reality in the current state of Baylor University’s academic excellence. He suggests that Baylor’s gaining membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) would be a “laudable vision.”

Such a vision may, indeed, be laudable, but it’s not very realistic at this time in Baylor’s history. I served as an administrator at the University of Maryland, College Park, campus when it was invited to be a member of the AAU.

This came as the result of 26 years of deliberate efforts that restructured the entire university, reduced its undergraduate student population by more than 10,000, increased significantly the funding provided for the graduate assistantships and faculty salaries, and altered completely the nature of the individual recruited as faculty member and administrator.

There are two large and complicated problems with the idea of Baylor’s becoming an AAU member. First, Baylor meets none of the many requirements to become an AAU member beyond offering a number of Ph.D. programs. It would take at least another 20 years of deliberate actions to possibly make this goal a reality.

Second, there’s an abundance of evidence that suggests regents don’t comprehend the changes needed to accomplish this goal, which a large share of the Baylor family do not want to occur.

Among the concerns: embracing an emphasis so heavy in research that it essentially dispenses with Baylor’s cherished reputation as a teaching university for undergrads.

Look at universities that are members of the AAU, and you’ll see a strong accent on external research money and research reputations but little in the way of teaching components.

Plus, Baylor is a tuition-driven university. No AAU-member universities are tuition-driven.

And if there’s one thing the nation’s academic community doesn’t need, it’s another research university.

Indeed, if presidential characteristics cited by Vaughan are adopted by the search committee and AAU membership proves a goal of Baylor regents, complete with inherent organizational and financial changes required of the university, then Baylor will no longer be known as an outstanding undergraduate teaching university.

And that would be a huge loss.

Henry Walbesser of Waco is a retired Baylor University professor of computer science.