E. Gordon Gee (President West Virginia U.)

[ORD_Buckeye]

I can understand that your son might find Gee's comments funny, but his bread-and-butter audience is made up of folks forty and up and that kind of humor works only when you are sure it's going no further than the room where it's spoken.

Gee has accomplished much in his two terms, not the least of which is to win the political battle in Columbus against Miami and to ignite an endowment fund that was a joke when compared to Michigan's. Unfortunately he didn't have the ability to fully grasp the political/public nature of his position. It's a major loss for the University he served so well in other areas.

Both of those battles had already been fought and won by Ed Jennings. Ohio State's first mulit-year fundraising campaign was begun in the mid 80s and set a record at the time of 450M for a public university. Hell, it probably didn't make any sense to do one before then because Rhodes would have found some legal way to split the money among all the public schools. At the same time--and with the political backing of Celeste and Vern Rhiffe--Jennings was undoing all of the Rhodes era policies in direct defiance of his own board. In 1987, when Rhodes' trustees officially became a minority on the board, those policies were formalized, and John Millett had the disgrace of watching his life's work of treachery undone from his deathbed! Gee came in after the heavy lifting had been done.

 

[AKAK]

They wanted to house ROTC cadets in your fraternity house?

We already had those, they paid rent though.

 

[AKAK]

Both of those battles had already been fought and won by Ed Jennings. Ohio State's first mulit-year fundraising campaign was begun in the mid 80s and set a record at the time of 450M for a public university. Hell, it probably didn't make any sense to do one before then because Rhodes would have found some legal way to split the money among all the public schools. At the same time--and with the political backing of Celeste and Vern Rhiffe--Jennings was undoing all of the Rhodes era policies in direct defiance of his own board. In 1987, when Rhodes' trustees officially became a minority on the board, those policies were formalized, and John Millett had the disgrace of watching his life's work of treachery undone from his deathbed! Gee came in after the heavy lifting had been done.

Are you saying that Jennings hastened along Millet's "departure?"

I mean, I'm cool with that, you know...

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Are you saying that Jennings hastened along Millet's "departure?"

I mean, I'm cool with that, you know...

Unfortunately no. I thought he died around '88, but he didn't assume room temp until '93. In a way, that's better. He lived long enough to not only see his treachery completely undone but to see a subsequent Republican Governor replace Celeste and not undo the Celeste/Jennings reforms, to see Gee come in and continue to build upon everything that had been done in the 80s while creating an extremely strong Ohio State lobby in the statehouse, business community and newspaper editorial boards. He hung on long enough to really see that those changes were irreversible and would undo everything he had worked and schemed to create--or I should say destroy.

He wounded Ohio State but like any good Fredoite quickly became too concerned with patting himself on the back and looking at himself in the mirror to realize that the big bear was down but not out, wounded but not dead. I'm glad he lived long enough to see the bear pick himself up off the ground and the clawed paw come swinging down on that precious little prep school of his.

Ever thus to traitors, John.

 

[AKAK]

Unfortunately no. I thought he died around '88, but he didn't assume room temp until '93. In a way, that's better. He lived long enough to not only see his treachery completely undone but to see a subsequent Republican Governor replace Celeste and not undo the Celeste/Jennings reforms, to see Gee come in and continue to build upon everything that had been done in the 80s while creating an extremely strong Ohio State lobby in the statehouse, business community and newspaper editorial boards. He hung on long enough to really see that those changes were irreversible and would undo everything he had worked and schemed to create--or I should say destroy.

He wounded Ohio State but like any good Fredoite quickly became too concerned with patting himself on the back and looking at himself in the mirror to realize that the big bear was down but not out, wounded but not dead. I'm glad he lived long enough to see the bear pick himself up off the ground and the clawed paw come swinging down on that precious little prep school of his.

Ever thus to traitors, John.

Here are directions for you, ORD. Drink lots of Iced Tea on the way.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28583825

 

[Steve19]

I like Gordon Gee and I think he has done a wonderful job for Ohio State in his two tenures. But, as they said on news in Europe and South Africa this week, the man recognized by Time Magazine as the top university president in America, seems to have not really realized that he is living in a digital age.

I have a simple test of ethical behavior that I share with all of my colleagues: do nothing that you would not be comfortable explaining in a television interview. Regrettably, Gordon Gee didn't pass that test. His comments about other universities only cast a spotlight on Ohio State's position outside the top 50 universities in America in the various rankings. It is all so unfortunate because he had pulled Ohio State back to national prominence and a rising ranking on several dimensions, which is not an easy feat for a state university anywhere.

When your university president is depicted as an ethnocentric bigot in the press worldwide, then the University really has only one decision that it can make.

I am deeply sorry to see Gordon Gee leave this job. I take solace in knowing that the University will be in Joe Alutto's experienced hands during the transition. Ohio State will not miss a beat.

 

[cincibuck]

I think it's more of a middle ground. It wasn't a "resign or we fire you tomorrow" situation like JT. From what I've heard, he realized that he had gone too far this time and the university was receiving a fuckload (justifiably or not) or bad press. The board was pissed--especially after the other recent episodes which he should have learned from--but he still had their support (and Kasich's) to stay on with a Bobby Knightesque zero tolerance policy in place.

I think he realized the damage he had done and did what was best for all. I too hope that when all this dies down, he still maintains an active role in the fundraising campaign.

Might also want to compare how the two schools, Ohio State and Penn State, dealt with their problems... and make no mistake, Gee's behavior is no where near the level of Paterno's.

 

[stowfan]

As I read through this thread, I can't help but wonder how much did JT's sucess help with the fund raising?

 

[stowfan]

As I read through this thread, I can't help but wonder how much did JT's sucess help with the fund raising?

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

As I read through this thread, I can't help but wonder how much did JT's sucess help with the fund raising?

None whatsoever. Ohio State had its best fundraising year EVER the year after he was fired. Wexner's donation is spread out over 7 years, so it was not solely the result of that either. We also set single year records that year for both the number of 1M+ donations and overall total number of donors. In other words, in the aftermath of Tressel's firing, Ohio State set records for overall fundraising and breadth and depth of donors. If anything, one could argue that Ohio State's donors pulled out their checkbooks because JT was whacked, but that's not the case either.

Ohio State set a record for the highest fundraising campaign ever by a public university in the mid-80's during the depths of the frustration with Earl's 9-3 seasons. Ohio State had their second fundraising campaign in the mid to late 90s during Cooper's continual shitting of the bed against Michigan/SEC. The initial goal was 850M. It was passed early, and the goal was reset to 1B. The final tally was 1.23B. At the time, we were only the fifth public university ever to successfully complete a billion dollar fundraising campaign.

Reality is that football success has next to no influence on overall fundraising. If it did, Alabama would have an endowment 4x that of Minnesota rather than the opposite which is the actual case.

 

[maximumblitz]

Early speculation on Gee's successor ... For about the past five years the speculation at CWRU has been that President Barbara Snyder was waiting for Gee's retirement in order to return to OSU ... and she is nearing the completion of a successful $1 billion fundraising campaign. She has done very well in winning over the alumni base ... Again, don't know where the Board stands, but if she emerges as a top candidate, you heard it here first.

Fundraising may be the biggest qualification for president. But Snyder? I have a degree from that place and I never donated. In fact, I never heard of her, so she has not won me over. On the other hand, there are many outstanding BP personalities who have proven themselves up to the task of fundraising and have me planning to donate to BP at my earliest convenience. I hereby nominate: osugrad21, pnuts34, RB07OSU, buckyle, ORD Buckeye, HorshoeFetish, y0yoyoin, and many, more.

 

[Dee-Liem]

I have a thought or a feeling that President Gee will be the main Spring Commencement speaker at Ohio State within 1-3 years.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

I hereby nominate: osugrad21, pnuts34, RB07OSU, buckyle, ORD Buckeye, HorshoeFetish, y0yoyoin, and many, more.

I (we) accept your nomination.

 

[cincibuck]

As I read through this thread, I can't help but wonder how much did JT's sucess help with the fund raising?

Piling on to ORD's comments. University of Chicago and Case-Western no longer have football programs, yet both rank in the top fifty endowments. No one compares Northwestern football to Michigan, yet each has an endowment of 7 billion +.

First figures are endowment funds in 2005, second figure is 2011... which would seem to suggest that endowment funds handled the recession better than the rest of us.

Harvard University $25.473 $31.728
Yale University $15.224 $19.374
University of Texas System $11.610 $17.149
Princeton University $11.207 $17.110
Stanford University $12.205 $16.503
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $6.712 $9.713
University of Michigan $4.931 $7.835
Columbia University $5.191 $7.790
Northwestern University $4.215 $7.183
Texas A&M University System $4.964 $7.000
University of Pennsylvania $4.370 $6.582
University of Chicago $4.137 $6.575
University of California $5.222 $6.342
University of Notre Dame $3.650 $6.260
Duke University $3.826 $5.747
Emory University $4.376 $5.400
Washington University in St. Louis $4.268 $5.280
Cornell University $3.777 $5.059
University of Virginia $3.219 $4.761
Rice University $3.611 $4.451
University of Southern California $2.746 $3.517
Vanderbilt University $2.628 $3.415
Dartmouth College $2.714 $3.413
New York University $1.548 $2.827
Johns Hopkins University $2.177 $2.598
University of Pittsburgh $1.530 $2.527
University of Minnesota $1.969 $2.503
Brown University $1.844 $2.497
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $1.486 $2.261
University of Washington $1.490 $2.154
Ohio State University $1.726 $2.121
Purdue University (system-wide) $1.341 $2.002
University of Richmond $1.208 $1.877
University of Wisconsin?Madison $1.125 $1.873
Williams College $1.348 $1.784
California Institute of Technology $1.418 $1.772
Rockefeller University $1.557 $1.746
Boston College $1.270 $1.726
Pennsylvania State University $1.175 $1.725
Case Western Reserve University $1.516 $1.703
Pomona College $1.299 $1.700
Amherst College $1.155 $1.642
University of Rochester $1.370 $1.623
Georgia Institute of Technology $0.937 $1.620
University of Illinois system $1.148 $1.601
Indiana University (system-wide) $1.107 $1.575
Swarthmore College $1.164 $1.508
Grinnell College $1.391 $1.500
Wellesley College $1.276 $1.500
University of California, Los Angeles $0.668 $1.486
Smith College $1.036 $1.430
Tufts University $0.845 $1.404
Michigan State University $0.906 $1.400

 

[BayBuck]

Maybe fodder for a separate thread, but The Dispatch begins to speculate on potential candidates, including Barbara Snyder :

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/06/06/gee-to-remain-force-at-osu.html

One name that came to mind among several search experts yesterday is a familiar one at Ohio State: Nancy Zimpher, a former OSU dean who is now the chancellor of the State University of New York.

...

Other search experts said they could narrow possible candidates down to the chiefs of a couple of dozen other big schools. The pool has narrowed, they said, as a generation of university leaders ages and heads toward retirement.

Also of note: Gee's significant other in California is described as a "folk singer and yoga instructor".