A CHOICE FOR THE STATUS-QUO

Congratulations to Bill Goetz on his selection as chancellor of the North Dakota university system (See July 24, 2006 commentary “Sabotage the Leader” and the August 1, 2006 commentary, “Interim Means Caretaker.”)

A few reflections:

Mr. Goetz is the “status-quo” selection—predictable after the Robert Potts fiasco when the State Board of Higher Education demonstrated that it did not want change or a strong leader. Mr. Goetz is probably a fine choice if North Dakota wants the university system to be maintained with only incremental and non-threatening changes rather than new ideas to transform North Dakota’s higher education system to meet the needs of the 21st century—that’s assuming North Dakota higher education needs to be transformed. Perhaps it is, unlike most organizations and institutions today, just fine as it is.

North Dakota higher education remains (like so much else in North Dakota) a “good old boys/girls club” led tacitly by Joseph Chapman, president of North Dakota State University. The next chancellor will be someone just like them—someone who will not upset things.

It was unimaginable to me that the State Board of Higher Education would select a black outsider (the other candidate: Paul Keys, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Governors State University, University Park, Ill.) with international experience (when state leaders do not know who Bono is) to lead the university system of 11 colleges and universities. That would be far outside their comfort zone.

Besides how many great leaders from the outside would want to come to North Dakota after the Potts fiasco?

Some criticized Goetz’s lack of a Ph.D. That is ridiculous; Mr. Goetz has an impressive resume. If he has learned from his experiences as a leader, he has the equivalent of more than one Ph.D. If, on the other hand, he has had one year of experience repeated 40 times, then a Ph.D. would not help him. I suspect he will be a more than competent status-quo executive who will do nothing to disturb the insular system as his boring incremental improvement “Goetz’s plans” in the February 24, 2007 Fargo Forum promised—a plan that lacks energy, ambition, and inspiration.

The North Dakota University System paid a consultant $96,000 to conduct a national search for the chancellor position and for presidents of Mayville State University and North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton. In each case local talent was hired.

Chancellor Eddie Dunn said, “It’s good to know they won it in a national search. It wasn’t just handed to them because they were in the state and inherited it.” Meaning no disrespect to those selected, I find it hard to believe that at least one better candidate could not be found after an almost $100,000 national search. Perhaps the results reflect the fear that new people with new ideas, different experience, and a view of the world different than that of clubby North Dakota would threaten the entrenched culture. The consultant creates the image of a sincere national search and covers an “inside job.”

The more things change, the more they remain the same.