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Gee, 63, denied his interest in the job in a June 26 story in the Nashville Tennessean, saying "his commitment to Vanderbilt is unwavering and unshakable."
But OSU, which has been without a president since Karen Holbrook retired in mid-June, apparently proved irresistible. Gee has been enormously popular at Vanderbilt. But he recently came under scrutiny after the Wall Street Journal last year detailed his expensive renovations to the school-owned presidential mansion and his wife's use of marijuana at the house. Gee has since divorced his wife, Constance, who is on the faculty at Vanderbilt.
FCollinsBuckeye;880008; said:No dig on the Redhawks, ORD? You're slipping.
ORD_Buckeye;879982; said:It looks as though Gee is leaving Vanderbilt after all to return to Ohio State. With all of the fundamental changes (and likely emergence of a real, rational unversity system) being championed by Strickland and the Republican leadership in the assembly, it can't help to have the most politically astute higher education leader that Ohio has ever seen back in Bricker Hall.
LitlBuck;879892; said:Why is he coming to Ohio State for less money? This will be very interesting with regards to the athletic department. I would have liked to see the look on Smith's face when he heard the news.
sandgk;880017; said:Well now he has divorced his wife I guess there is less need for a supply of good home-grown wacky-tabacky ready for the Gee'ster's soirees.
More coverage at Dispatch.com on Gee's return.
Sounds like Thursday is the likely date of a joint announcement in Columbus.
ORD_Buckeye;879982; said:It looks as though Gee is leaving Vanderbilt after all to return to Ohio State. With all of the fundamental changes (and likely emergence of a real, rational unversity system) being championed by Strickland and the Republican leadership in the assembly, it can't help to have the most politically astute higher education leader that Ohio has ever seen back in Bricker Hall.
FCollinsBuckeye;880397; said:Did you mean 'can't hurt'? Just curious.
I thought Gee was a fine President while I was in school, and think it's a good re-hire.
ORD_Buckeye;880425; said:Yep, I meant can't hurt.
I've never understood the hatred towards Holbrook. Ohio State moved forward by just about every ranking or criteria during her tenure, but I do understand that schmoozing alumni and dealing with politicians were not her strong points. In the immediate coming years, those shortcomings would not have served her well.
Gee is 63. My guess is that he'll be here for around 7 years and then retire. In this coming period, his strengths are exactly what we need. Someone to successfully oversee the upcoming 2+ billion dollar fundraising campaign and a politically astute president who has the full respect of the politicians in order to ensure that Ohio State's historic and rightful role as the state's flagship university is formalized in the upcoming restructuring of Ohio's public universities.
The Columbus Dispatch : Chancellor puts schools on notice
However, anybody thinking that Gee's return means some repudiation of Holbrook's policies is dreaming. For one thing, the accomplishments under Gee, Kirwan and Holbrook all flow from the difficult job that Ed Jennings did in undoing the damage to Ohio State in the 60s and 70s by Jim Rhodes and the university's reassertion of its historic (and rightful) role as the state's qualitative flagship university. Holbrook did not represent some radical break with Ohio State's history but simply a continuation of it, so expect the same from Gee II. The only radical break with Ohio State's history and role in Ohio's university system came in 1962 with Jim Rhodes--policies whose last vestiges are being snuffed out as we speak with the full support of the both the Republican and Democratic leadership of the state. The problem is that Rhodes was in office for so long that many Ohioans came to view his higher education policies as the historic norm rather than the historic aberration and break which they truly represented.
ORD_Buckeye;880425; said:Yep, I meant can't hurt.
I've never understood the hatred towards Holbrook. Ohio State moved forward by just about every ranking or criteria during her tenure, but I do understand that schmoozing alumni and dealing with politicians were not her strong points. In the immediate coming years, those shortcomings would not have served her well..