The Odd Couple: Don’t Go Changing

RST: Gordon! For some reason, I got a zillion texts this week about who might serve as interim president at Ohio State. Not it, right?

EGG: Of course not. I am too busy and happy being harassed by you. 🤓👍🏻

RST: Phew. The Odd Couple marriage needs to last. And sorry my husband Toby and I disappointed you by not ordering the most expensive things on the menu in D.C., but the conversation at dinner was even better than the food. And now Toby has a man crush on you.

EGG: Toby and you are fortunate to have each other. Such fun, and he puts up with your never-ending curiosity. Finally we had a chance to lock horns in person. And it was a delight.

RST: Sure was. OK, friend. We have to tackle the thing that everyone is talking about. And no, it’s not climate change, because somehow we’ve stopped paying attention to the biggest news story of our time.

EGG: My retirement?

RST: The Epstein files. The ways a whole bunch of skeevy academics were seduced by money and proximity to perceived power. What I need to ask you about is Les Wexner. I think we all know that he was in some way responsible for Epstein’s rise. Now folks at OSU want to cleanse his name from buildings. What do you have to say?

EGG: I know that it is the collective cause to condemn anyone who had any involvement with Epstein. He was a truly awful human being. Yet, it is also unfair to immediately condemn someone simply by association. I believe in presumed innocence. Let the facts prevail.

RST: Moving right along, here’s a duh. You and I and a bunch of others agree that higher ed is stuck in the past and needs to make some big changes. Why the resistance?

EGG: Let’s start with fear. Embedded in the academic culture is comfort and, increasingly, complacency. We have it so good in higher education, and we protect ourselves from the vicissitudes of the “real” world, that the thought of change gives people hives. Also, in addition to complacency there is arrogance. We believe we have created a perfect system, and we should never be told that change is necessary.

RST: For faculty, there isn’t a lot of daily fear. Since I started out in university jobs where I was an at-will employee, instead of enjoying the just-cause luxury status of tenure, I am continually afraid of being fired—even as a full professor. Still, I will admit that even though teaching is way harder than before the pandemic, I have little real incentive to change what or how I do things other than my own sense of never being good enough.

EGG: Precisely. Most institutions have antiquated reward and recognition structures that do not motivate change and creativity. In fact, they create a disincentive to change.

RST: Except in July, when the Huge Ugly Bill takes effect, we’re all going to be in a world of hurt (think Pell, loan caps and accreditation). Still, not everyone is tracking what’s coming out of D.C., especially faculty.

EGG: You are right. Faculty think, “Why change? We have tenure and shared governance and other vehicles called committees and working groups that will protect us. All these university presidents that are telling us to change will be gone soon, either because of new opportunities or no-confidence votes.” Over time I have observed that about a third of the faculty resist any change, another third sit on the sidelines and watch the battle, and the rest sense that there are impending challenges which require change. Unfortunately, it is the first group that are the loud voices and intimidate or bully the others.

RST: I don’t agree with that distribution. As I wrote in a column, I think it’s just the Angry Eight, or Furious Five, or Irate Individual who can stick a twig in the fixed-gear bike of progress. Most faculty love what they do (or, at least, they get satisfaction from one of the three parts of the job—teaching, scholarship and service). But they’re just following the template that their advisers used. Maybe it’s not so much that we won’t change, but we don’t know how. The stereotype is an easy target. Most presidents tell me they didn’t read a book about faculty resistance to change because the whole argument was recognizable in the title. That admires the problem but offers nothing in the way of real solutions.

EGG: Oh my, Rachel. That is the very problem with a lot of university leaders. We love to whine and complain and talk about the inability to motivate change, but we do not come up with truly new and forward-thinking ways to actually cause and create change. As irritated as I can become about the resistance among faculty, whenever I am with a group of presidents, their willingness to complain but not to lead is breathtaking.

RST: We are talking to different groups of leaders. More on that below.

EGG: I have alluded to this a number of times in our conversations, but the whole way we reward and recognize faculty is entirely wrong. Surely you would admit that in your own department there are faculty who love to teach and do it brilliantly, there are some who are capable of writing the great American novel, and, frankly, a few who should never see students. Why do we have a reward structure that requires all of these people to do the same thing and be rewarded on the same basis? We are creating McDonald’s hamburgers, requiring people to have the same pickles, lettuce and onions.

RST: Yes. And. I’m not going to let you be that old former president who goes around telling folks still in the job to do things you knew needed doing and yet didn’t. Why didn’t you change the reward structure when you were still on the job?

EGG: You caught me. I thought a lot about it and nibbled at the edges but never really put my leadership on the line. So, let me just admit that I am the poster child for many of the issues that we are facing now. But over the past 10 years I really started to get religion. I guess there is nothing like a convert.

RST: You’ve said this to me in person, but I want it on the record: Gordon, you didn’t make needed changes because you were scared you’d lose your job.

EGG: Yes. I was scared.

RST: And yet, you never learned to resist jokes that would get your ass fired. 🤣 This is why I’m deploying you to help brave new presidents who are serious about disrupting the status quo. You’ve already talked to a few of them and I have more to put on your dance card. Those who have the support of boards are doing cool things. But they also have to win over the faculty.

EGG: First, I am offended by the way you characterized my departures. I prefer to think I left just ahead of the sheriff. Saying that, you raise a big issue. Rachel, if I came to you as your president and told you that we are going to reward you based upon a whole new set of criteria that are focused on individual performance, I suspect you would mount the barricades. Well, maybe not you, but I guarantee you that there would be rioting in the English Department and even a few punches thrown. Correct?

RST: Well, the Angry Eight would hang you in effigy. I’d be tap-dancing my way into designing a workload that served the university well by using skills I actually have. Especially if I understood the direction of the institution and everyone agreed on it. Shouldn’t that come from the top?

EGG: I do think the role of the university president is to set the tone and values. But in terms of change, you have to find fellow travelers, and that is where leadership often breaks down. Leading change from the front is a surefire way to get shot. The question is how much change you can drive without stirring up 51 percent of the beehives. I tried to keep my strategies as close to 50 percent as possible. But that may have been cowardice.

RST: I think the reason the faculty were extra mad at you when you made cuts at WVU is that you started out in the days of go-go-go and built and expanded and brought in money. We talked at dinner about the zillions you raised to get hospitals in the health-care deserts of West Virginia and how you and Brad Smith worked to support the state. I had no idea about this stuff. And then all of a sudden it was like, let’s cut out all the good stuff at WVU. You can see why people might have been confused. Why the switcheroo?

EGG: Good observation. And true. Coming out of COVID, we had a structural deficit of about $45 million. Given the size of the university budget, I could easily have kicked any substantive decision down the field.

RST: Um, something plenty do, which is why the presidency is now so much harder than it used to be, but carry on.

EGG: I had been following the trends carefully. I realized that the deficit could grow substantially unless I took immediate action. I had other factors in favor of change: a supportive Board of Governors, a committed senior team and a positive legislative environment. Those three factors are critical in making any kind of dramatic change in a public university. So, I announced my retirement and decided to use the $45 million as the catalyst for long-needed changes.

RST: On your way out the door.

EGG: Yes. I wish I had more time to lay the groundwork and to communicate a rationale, but in the end I am not certain I could have persuaded many people. We were the first to do something so focused, but as you now know our playbook is being replicated throughout higher education. A small solace, I suppose.

RST: Just after you made those cuts, a new president told Doug Lederman they were going to follow your playbook. Doug was like, whoa, that’s risky. Now everyone’s cutting programs because no one is safe, including the fancy-pants institutions. Can we discuss in our next column some possible ways to change the reward structure for faculty?

EGG: Absolutely. I do not want to be one of these talking heads who just pontificate about problems. We have an opportunity given the moment to create new approaches to higher education, and it does start with how we reward and recognize faculty. So let us try to make some sense out of a system that is failing all but a few.

RST: Not only do you personally have loads of money (as you gleefully pointed out when you tried to get me and Toby to order more expensive food), you have access to people with even more. And to politicians. In addition to working for me (around the clock), you’re also having lots of talks with folks in D.C. I told you that when I connect you to current presidents you must do more than hand out leadership bromides and tell war stories. We are putting you to work, pal.

EGG: Yes, boss!