U. of Tennessee Considers a Politically Connected Businessman to Run Its System

The University of Tennessee is reaching outside academe for an interim leader to guide a system that has been buffeted by controversy.

On Tuesday the president of the Board of Trustees recommended the appointment of Randy Boyd, a businessman and philanthropist with political ambitions, to run the system for up to two years.

If approved by the board at a special meeting next week, Boyd would represent a pivot away from traditional academic leadership for the system, at least temporarily, after several years of strife and scandal, especially at the flagship campus, in Knoxville.

A Tennessee alumnus, Boyd has no background as a faculty member or in academic leadership, but he played a key role in Gov. Bill Haslam’s signature higher-education policies. Boyd, who made millions as the owner of a company that makes wireless fences for pets, helped found a scholarship program for high-school students in his native Knoxville that inspired Haslam’s Tennessee Promise, which provides free tuition at community colleges in the state.

Boyd also played key roles in Haslam’s administration, as an unpaid adviser on higher education and as state commissioner of economic development. Boyd ran for governor this year to succeed Haslam, a Republican who has served two terms and was not eligible to run again. Boyd was defeated in the Republican primary last month.

A representative of the system office said Boyd would not be available for comment until after next week’s board meeting.

A ‘UT Guy’

Boyd would take the reins of a system that has been embroiled in a string of controversies, many of them involving the ire of elected officials. The current system president, Joseph A. DiPietro, faced the displeasure of some state lawmakers over a website on the Knoxville campus that offered guidelines on the use of gender-neutral pronouns, and over the work of its Office for Diversity and Inclusion. DiPietro this week announced his intention to retire in February.

The flagship suffered another PR black eye last year after it tried to hire, then rescinded a job offer to, Greg Schiano, a football coach, after an outcry over his ties to the Sandusky scandal at Pennsylvania State University. This year faculty members have been discomfited by changes in the system’s post-tenure review process, which many see as an attempt to weaken tenure. In May, DiPietro fired Beverly J. Davenport, the chancellor of the Knoxville campus, after she had been on the job just a year.

The board itself is still new. In April, in a controversial move, Haslam reduced its size from 27 members to 12, eliminating the student representative and the faculty representative and naming 10 new trustees, including John Compton, the chair. In a memo recommending Boyd and calling for the special board meeting, Compton wrote that the system needs “an outside-in perspective — someone who could objectively look at all options without any bias” in its interim leader. According to Compton, the system needs to “examine whether there are organizational structures that can elevate our university to even higher levels of academic success.”

Jason Zachary, a Republican state representative whose district is in the Knoxville area, said Boyd is well known throughout the state, and would be “a steadying force” at a time when much of the system’s leadership is new or in flux. Boyd also has the benefit of being “a UT guy,” Zachary said. Tennessee is a conservative, Bible Belt state, and any outsider coming in to lead the system would have to “learn the heritage, the culture, understand the people,” he said. “That will not be an issue for Randy.”

Faculty members have already expressed concern that Boyd doesn’t have any academic-leadership experience, said Misty G. Anderson, a professor of English and president of the Faculty Senate, and that he’s taking the role so soon after running for statewide office. But, she added, Compton’s framing of Boyd’s proposed appointment as a chance for the system to step back and look to improve its management structure “could be a good thing.”

Anderson said any permanent president of the university would need to come from within academe, but she is keeping an open mind about Boyd. And she said she’s encouraged by his demonstrable commitment to higher education and his deep ties to the university.

“As we say around here,” she said, “I think he bleeds orange.”

Lee Gardner writes about the management of colleges and universities, higher-education marketing, and other topics. Follow him on Twitter @_lee_g, or email him at lee.gardner@chronicle.com.

Correction (9/20/2018, 10:20 a.m.): Beverly Davenport was the chancellor, not the president, of the Knoxville campus. The text has been corrected.

Correction (9/21/2018, 11:19 a.m.): This report initially referred to a memo that suggested the use of gender-neutral pronouns. Those guidelines were on a website, which then went viral via Fox News and other outlets. The article has been updated to reflect that.