Gordon Gee, Vanderbilt University’s chancellor and one of the best-known and highest-paid leaders in higher education, is headed back to his former post as Ohio State University’s president.
A former lawyer, Mr. Gee has presided over five universities during his 34-year career in academe, including stints at Brown University, West Virginia University, and the University of Colorado system. His return to Ohio State, which he led from 1990 through 1997, will be a rare second term for a college chief.
Ohio State’s Board of Trustees approved Mr. Gee’s appointment unanimously last week, and introduced him to a packed room on the campus as a “more seasoned and mature leader” than he had been a decade ago in Columbus.
“I thank all of you for letting me come home,” said Mr. Gee, who was both emotional and playful during his address, calling himself a “prodigal son” whom “this institution has never forgotten.”
Trustees on Ohio State’s presidential-search committee had been trying for months to lure Mr. Gee back to the university to replace Karen A. Holbrook, who retired last month. However, Mr. Gee released a statement in late June saying that he was not a candidate for the Ohio State job and that his “commitment to Vanderbilt” was “unwavering and unshakable.”
Mr. Gee acknowledged that the hiring process had been a “Kabuki dance” that featured a total reversal on his part. He said the “tenacity"of the search committee and a solo visit he made to Ohio State’s campus the previous weekend had changed his mind about coming back to Columbus.
“I’ve been president of half the universities in the country,” Mr. Gee joked, noting that his experience made him qualified to say that Ohio State is “one of the most exciting academic environments in the country.”
Mr. Gee’s base salary at Ohio State will be $775,000, said G. Gilbert Cloyd, chairman of the Board of Trustees. An “appropriate” benefits package has yet to be negotiated, Mr. Cloyd said. Therefore it is unclear if Mr. Gee’s compensation will top what he receives at Vanderbilt, where he is the nation’s highest paid university president, with a total compensation of more than $1.1-million, according to The Chronicle’s most recent executive-compensation report (November 24, 2006).
Vanderbilt officials said Mr. Gee would leave his post on August 1. He will begin at Ohio State in the fall. Mr. Gee agreed to an initial contract of seven years at Ohio State, where he insists he will finish his career.
“This one really is it,” said Mr. Gee.
Robert H. Atwell, a former president of the American Council on Education, said Ohio State was “very lucky to get” Mr. Gee, who “had a great run there.”
Mr. Atwell, a critic of high presidential pay, said he was surprised that Ohio State could offer a compensation package that would tempt Mr. Gee. “If you’re going to pay somebody the very big bucks,” he said, “you’d better get someone with a proven track record. Gordon Gee has that record.”
A Bow Tie and a Smile
At all of his presidential posts, Mr. Gee has been praised for his strong rapport with students, faculty members, donors, and lawmakers. With an ever-present bow tie and a big smile, Mr. Gee is a virtuoso glad-hander on campus. He has even been seen at fraternity parties at wee hours of the morning.
He has been popular during his seven years at Vanderbilt. When The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article last September about his lucrative compensation package and $700,000 in annual expenses, Vanderbilt’s governing board stood by the chancellor, saying he earned his pay.
Last week the university released a written statement praising his accomplishments, including his having beaten both the monetary and deadline goals of a $1.25-billion capital campaign — which he then raised to $1.75-billion.
Several Vanderbilt faculty members said they were saddened that Mr. Gee was leaving. Leah S. Marcus, acting chair of the English department, said his departure was a “disaster” for the university.
“He has inspired leadership, enlivened the campus, and given everybody a sense of participation and active interest in the community,” Ms. Marcus said. “He knew thousands of people by name. He would go around the campus and greet people. He would make himself extremely accessible to everyone.”
John Lachs, a philosophy professor and 40-year Vanderbilt veteran, agreed and wondered who could adequately replace Mr. Gee.
“This university is a lot better than it thinks it is, and Gee realized that,” he said.
Mr. Gee also has many fans from his days in Columbus. Perhaps none have been more important than Leslie H. Wexner, chairman and chief executive of Limited Brands, a clothing conglomerate, and Alex Shumate, managing partner of a big Columbus law firm. Both men are on Ohio State’s board and were members of the presidential search committee, which Mr. Shumate led.
Jan Greenwood, who heads an executive-search firm focused on higher education, says Mr. Gee was remembered fondly for his charisma as Ohio State’s president.
He faces a challenge, however, if he hopes to upstage the fund-raising prowess of his most recent predecessor. Ms. Holbrook, who arrived in 2002, oversaw a doubling of Ohio State’s endowment, to more than $2-billion, and an increase in research expenditures to $550-million.
Ohio State, with an annual budget of $3.7-billion, has grown substantially since his previous tenure, when the budget was $1.7-billion. But both Mr. Gee and Ohio State’s trustees said last week that his decade of experience away from the university would help him in his second turn at the helm.
Mr. Gee will also have to overcome questions about his loyalty, given his many jumps between jobs and his June promise to stay at Vanderbilt. While a recent survey found that the average university president lasts eight and a half years in a job, Mr. Gee has never stayed that long. He left Brown University after only two years.
Big Pulpit in Columbus
The presidential search at Ohio State, which was handled by the national firm Heidrick & Struggles, was confidential, with no public release of finalists. But trustees said they were looking for an established, sitting president. They praised Mr. Gee as a proven leader and prolific fund raiser.
R. William Funk, a prominent search consultant who recruited Mr. Gee to Vanderbilt, said he was surprised by the chancellor’s move back to Ohio State. It’s rare, Mr. Funk said, for presidents to leave private universities for public ones, where they are under greater scrutiny, particularly as a late-career move. He could not remember another example of a president’s returning to a former post.
However, Mr. Funk said the seven years Mr. Gee has spent at Vanderbilt has been almost his longest stint as a top university executive. “Maybe he just wanted a new challenge,” Mr. Funk said.
Despite being at a public university, Ohio State’s top job is one of the most attractive presidencies in higher education, said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland and Mr. Gee’s successor at Ohio State.
“Ohio State dominates Ohio,” he said, adding that no other single university has such a broad impact on a large state. However, Mr. Kirwan said, the university does not receive the same level of state financial support as do some elite public universities, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Several of Mr. Gee’s colleagues said he thrived on the high profile of running the huge campus. Ohio State has a total enrollment of 59,000 and regularly draws more than 100,000 fans to its home football games.
“Gordon relishes the public life,” Mr. Kirwan said, and at Ohio State he was a beloved fixture.
Returning to a powerhouse of intercollegiate sports may pose a challenge for Mr. Gee, who led an overhaul of Vanderbilt’s athletics department and has been critical of the big money in college sports. However, Vanderbilt, a member of the strong Southeastern Conference, has been competitive during his tenure, most notably in 2006 with an NCAA tournament run by its men’s basketball team and a 2005 upset win in football over the University of Tennessee. Mr. Funk said the high energy of a football town would feel natural for Mr. Gee.
“I think Gordon really enjoyed the platform and the high profile of being a Big Ten president,” Mr. Funk said.
If, as Mr. Gee said in his statement, returning to Ohio State feels like coming home, that trip may come at a welcome time. The Wall Street Journal’s investigation of him, which he called a “five-month colonoscopy,” included allegations that his wife, Constance B. Gee, had smoked marijuana in the chancellor’s residence at Vanderbilt.
In February, Ms. Gee, who was a faculty member at Ohio State when she met Mr. Gee, filed for divorce, according to news reports. She is an associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt.
In Columbus last week, Mr. Gee said he was excited about helping lead Ohio State from “excellence to eminence.” He also said he wanted to return to a public university.
“This is the university of the American dream,” Mr. Gee said.
But he also said some of the reasons for his return to Ohio were selfish. He described the bond he and his daughter, Rebekah, felt with the campus when his first wife, Elizabeth, died of cancer there in 1991.
“This was a pure and simple spiritual decision for me,” he said.
Sara Lipka and Robin Wilson contributed to this article.
http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 53, Issue 46, Page A1
