I would not be worried about a non academic prez at Hope. Hopefully there has been enough bad press about non academic president issues that they would know enough about faculty’s view of the importance of shared governance. The U of Iowa has a leader from the corporate world. He previously had served as an adjunct professor but had not been involved in ed administration.
Re ucbalumnus #39: I agree that the universities need to pay attention to their finances. Most large universities have a Vice President for Finance and Operations (or some similar title) who could be the highest-ranking administrator responsible for this issue, though. It need not be specifically the President.
Former Congresswoman and now U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson was a good president at South Dakota School of Mines. I second that Congressman Marty Mehan did a fantastic job as president of U Massachusetts-Lowell. Other non-academics whom were appointed as a political reward, have been disasters from time to time. New Jersey has a history of this.
Drexel’s president, John Fry, is a nonacademic (no PhD) with a long, very successful career as an academic administrator. He was a vice president at Penn under Judith Rodin, and was regarded as primarily responsible for a very successful development strategy in and around the Penn campus that revitalized the University City neighborhood and contributed enormously to improving the atmosphere at Penn. He was then picked to be president of Franklin & Marshall, and did a pretty excellent job there before being recruited to Drexel. He has had a lot to deal with there, including some severe money problems, but he is a very ambitious guy who is good at finding solutions and getting things done. He’s not always super popular with the academic faculty, but he’s a very impressive leader and I have no doubt he’s going to leave Drexel in better shape than he found it.
@Corinthian This guy has done an amazing job. No hesitation to send one of ours there.