After Troubled Times, Missouri System Picks an Academic as Its Leader

For the first time since 2008, the University of Missouri System will be led by someone who is steeped in the traditions of academe. But the new president’s attention will be spread far and wide as he seeks to heal the rifts between numerous constituencies.

The system’s Board of Curators announced Wednesday morning that it had chosen Mun Y. Choi, who has been provost at the University of Connecticut since 2012. He will replace Timothy M. Wolfe, a former software company executive, who was forced out last fall amid widespread protests over racial problems at the flagship campus, in Columbia. Michael A. Middleton, a former deputy chancellor of the Columbia campus, has served as the system’s interim president since then.

Mr. Choi will take office at Missouri in March.

“I’m very excited that we’ve hired someone with extensive experience in academia,” said Keith J. Stine, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and chair of the Faculty Senate at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. The choice of an academic is evidence that the search committee was responsive to faculty input, said Mr. Stine, especially since the two previous presidents had no experience in higher education beyond their undergraduate degrees.

Turmoil at Mizzou

Last fall student protests over race relations rocked the University of Missouri at Columbia. Now Mizzou’s leaders are striving to meet students’ demands while restoring stability and the public’s faith in their institution.

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Mr. Wolfe earned a bachelor’s degree from Mizzou but had a career in the software industry before he was appointed to lead the university system in 2011. Before that, Gary D. Forsee, who began his tenure as system president in 2008, had been chief executive of the Sprint Nextel Corporation.

The search committee and board “clearly came up with someone who looks appropriate and promising,” Mr. Stine said. “They didn’t go out and choose another corporate executive.”

Mr. Choi, who is 52, was Connecticut’s dean of engineering from 2008 to 2012. He previously held positions at Drexel University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering from Princeton University.

Appointing an academic as a campus or system president isn’t yet the exception in higher education, but it cuts against a growing trend of choosing a leader from industry or politics who may be seen as someone to usher in big changes.

New Challenges

At a news conference on Wednesday morning, Mr. Choi spoke repeatedly about promoting academic excellence at Missouri’s four campuses. That means supporting research with sufficient dollars, equipment, and facilities, and listening to input from faculty, staff and students who are “the true heart and soul” of the institutions, he said.

But he also acknowledged that he has to promote the system to the state’s residents and elected officials. The flagship in Columbia, in particular, has struggled with declining enrollment and threats of budget cuts resulting from last year’s turmoil.

“The first thing I have to do is listen,” Mr. Choi said, responding to a question about how he would work with elected officials. After that, he said, he would work to find a common vision for the system’s future role in the state.

At the same time, he said, he would seek to avoid further racial unrest on campuses. “It’s important for all of us to open that line of dialogue so any group doesn’t feel their voices are not heard,” he said.

Mr. Choi’s multifaceted job description was crafted by the system’s search committee, which laid out a lofty list of qualifications for their new president. Those included creating “an enduring social compact with the citizens” of the state and their elected officials and leading a statewide “conversation about the value of diversity, inclusion, equity and respect for all of Missouri’s diverse citizens through an open and equitable higher education.”

Susan Herbst, UConn’s president, said Mr. Choi has been steadfast in his commitment to making his current institution more diverse and inclusive for students and faculty. And he is comfortable, she said, in having difficult conversations on racial issues.

Another area where he has succeeded, Ms. Herbst said, is in forming meaningful partnerships with multinational corporations to support and promote research. Those ventures have been “more than window dressing,” she said, and are increasingly important to public higher education at a time when few expect state appropriations to increase. But there will be other challenges for Mr. Choi as he moves from a position of academic leadership at a single institution to the more diffuse job of running a system, Ms. Herbst said.

System offices have to help their universities develop and promote a coherent statewide mission, she said, but they can’t micromanage their operations. “They need to let the campuses have their own culture.”

Ben Trachtenberg, chair of the Faculty Council at Missouri’s Columbia campus and an associate professor of law, said he wasn’t worried about Mr. Choi’s transition from a provost’s office to a system’s presidency.

But because the search process was entirely closed, the new president will still have to spend a lot of time making connections at the campuses.

“Nobody can dispute” that the new president is a serious academic, Mr. Trachtenberg said. “A lot of people are excited, but want to hear from the man himself.”

Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.

Correction (11/3/2016, 3:30 p.m.): Gary D. Forsee began his duties as system president not in 2007, as this article originally said, but in 2008. The text has been updated accordingly.