Former University of Alabama President Andrew Sorensen dies

[feenotype]

<p>[Former</a> University of Alabama President Andrew Sorensen dies | al.com](<a href=“http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/04/former_university_of_alabama_p.html]Former”>Former University of Alabama President Andrew Sorensen dies - al.com)</p>

<p>

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State University chief fundraiser Andrew Sorensen, who served six years as president of the University of South Carolina, died Sunday at age 72.</p>

<p>He served as president at the University of Alabama and then at South Carolina before joining OSU. He also worked as provost at the University of Florida and as executive director of the AIDS Institute at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.</p>

<p>OSU President E. Gordon Gee said in a statement on the school’s website that Sorensen died unexpectedly, but offered no details.</p>

<p>Sorensen, who was known for his bow ties, was remembered by South Carolina officials as a visionary leader who helped improve the relationship between the university and surrounding communities.</p>

<p>“As soon as he came to the state of South Carolina from Alabama, he has his ‘bow-tie tour,’” said provost Michael Amiridis, who was dean of the engineering school under Sorensen. “He decided to take the car and go to many, many small communities around the state, meet the people, reach out from the university, make sure that the university is not an ivory tower, but that it’s imbedded into the community and into the state of South Carolina.”</p>

<p>He also had an easy rapport with students, said trustee Herbert Adams, who was chairman of the university board during Sorensen’s tenure.</p>

<p>“I have grandchildren who were students,” Adams said. “My oldest grandson just thought the world of Andrew Sorensen and that’s what I saw among other students, too. The students who were involved day-to-day, active in organizations, really liked Andrew. He had a good relationship with them.”</p>

<p>After he retired as president at South Carolina, Sorensen joined the faculty at the university’s medical school before being named president of The Ohio State University Foundation and senior vice president for development in September.</p>

<p>Sorensen is survived by his wife and two sons.

</p>

[Atlanta68]

<p>Sad to hear. Not sure why his time at UA was not as productive as it was at USC. I have read that his wife did not like Tuscaloosa. Going from UA to USC is at best, a lateral move. Perhaps he was exhausted dealing with the NCAA problems that began under his stewardship. He seemed to really find his place in Columbia, SC. Anyone know more about his time here?</p>

[feenotype]

<p>[Former</a> UA president Andrew Sorensen dies at 72 | TuscaloosaNews.com](<a href=“http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110418/NEWS/110419661/1007?p=all&tc=pgall]Former”>http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110418/NEWS/110419661/1007?p=all&tc=pgall)</p>

<p>Former UA president Andrew Sorensen dies at 72
Sorensen boosted the University of Alabama’s national status</p>

<p>

UA’s 25th president, Sorensen served from 1996 to 2002.</p>

<p>“Dr. Andrew Sorensen’s presidency was a time of significant achievement for our system and this state,” said UA System Chancellor Malcolm Portera. “We were saddened to learn of his sudden death, and we extend deepest condolences to his beloved wife Donna and their family, who were such a vibrant part of this community.”</p>

<p>Under Sorensen, UA gained recognition as one of the top 50 public institutions in the country in an annual list published by U.S. News & World Report. Federal money for grants and contracts more than doubled during his six years. Also, citations of work done by UA’s faculty quadrupled. He also began offering computers to National Merit Finalists who enrolled at UA, and began the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, dedicating the Blount Living Learning Center in 2000.</p>

<p>“He was tireless in terms of energy and drive,” said Barry Mason, dean of the UA College of Business. “He was a man you had to admire for sheer tenacity and determination.”</p>

<p>Mason took over as interim president after Sorensen left for South Carolina, serving until current UA President Robert Witt came in March 2003. Sorensen, Mason said, focused on improving the quality of students and research.</p>

<p>“He strived to move the campus to being a regional and nationally recognized campus,” Mason said. “He set the campus on the right direction.”</p>

<p>The son of a Presbyterian minister, Sorensen was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1938. After graduating from high school, he went to seminary. But by his senior year in 1962, he decided against leading a parish. After a brief stint as a prison minister, he taught at Lincoln University in Philadelphia.</p>

<p>Sorensen went on to get a Bachelor of Divinity at Yale University, and a master’s and doctorate in medical sociology from Yale. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Illinois.</p>

<p>Later, he received a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan.</p>

<p>He held several teaching and administrative positions in health related schools at Harvard University, University of Massachusetts and Johns Hopkins University before becoming provost at the University of Florida in 1990.</p>

<p>He left that post in 1996 to become UA’s president.</p>

<p>“Andy said in his first meeting with the deans that he had assumed the role of ‘Dr. No’ in his former position as provost at the University of Florida, and, he looked forward to assuming a different role at the University of Alabama” said UA Provost Judy Bonner, the dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences under Sorensen.</p>

<p>He maintained constant contact with students, instituting a question-and-answer session with students in Ferguson Center and teaching a biostatistics course each semester.</p>

<p>“This allowed him to stay in touch with the students,” Bonner said. “And, it allowed him to demonstrate to the faculty how important teaching is in the life of a university.”</p>

<p>He increased black enrollment and tried to integrate the white Greek organizations while at UA by delaying rush. It was unpopular move with Greek students and alumni and one undone immediately by Witt.</p>

<p>Two thorns stuck in the side of Sorensen’s presidency: state budget and football. Both were never good enough.</p>

<p>Sorensen battled the Legislature for money throughout his tenure, leaving faculty salaries stagnant through his last few years. He was president through two years, 2001 and 2003, of proration, or mid-year cuts to the state education budget, and taxes for education declined in 2001. Commitment from the South Carolina Legislature for money was one thing he cited when leaving Tuscaloosa.</p>

<p>However, Mason said Sorensen tried to make up for loss of state money through fundraising, a skill he excelled at.</p>

<p>He was also haunted by his selection of former Texas Tech athletic director Bob Bockwrath as UA athletics director. Popular football coach Gene Stallings resigned at the end of the 1996 season, not long into the tenure of Sorensen and Bockwrath.</p>

<p>Later in Sorensen’s tenure, the football program was hit with NCAA investigation that slapped stiff penalties on the football program.
**
Sorenson was an agenda setter, but was not seen as a consensus builder. ** Almost since his arrival, there was speculation that he was looking — or being looked at — for other jobs, and his six years here is the shortest tenure of a president since Oliver Carmichael’s five-year tenure from 1953-1957.</p>

<p>Through it all, Sorensen remained an ordained minister and would often speak from pulpits around the state, almost always wearing a bowtie.</p>

<p>“He was a person of integrity,” Mason said.</p>

<p>Sorensen is survived by his wife, Donna Sorensen, and two sons. An endowed scholarship at UA is named after the Sorensens, and a special collection held by UA Libraries is named in honor of Donna Sorensen.

</p>

[NJBama]

<p>I never cared much for Bowtie Andy, though I certainly didn’t wish him death and I hope God comforts his family & friends at this time.</p>

<p>My reason for the dislike is summed up in the paragraph from the article above. </p>

<p>“He was also haunted by his selection of former Texas Tech athletic director Bob Bockwrath as UA athletics director. Popular football coach Gene Stallings resigned at the end of the 1996 season, not long into the tenure of Sorensen and Bockwrath.”</p>

<p>Andy never understood UA and the importance of football and what it means to this University. Dr. Witt on the other hand “gets it”.</p>

[feenotype]

<p>Football was indeed Dr. Sorensen 's downfall. I think Mal Moore should shoulder some of the blame though. He wasn’t the most competent AD at time either. I think rumor had it that when he went to Miami to lure Nick Saban, he was gonna have to come back with Saban or not come back at all.</p>

<p>I think Dr. Sorensen should be remembered for his contributions to UA. He laid a lot of the groundwork that made it possible for Dr. Witt to implement his agenda. For example, he established the Volunteer program which brought he idea for nice housing and generous scholarships for honors students. It was under his tenure that the inception for the science and engineering complex occurred.</p>

[NJBama]

<p>Well said, and I agree with you 100%.</p>

[feenotype]

<p>Ugh, this is what happens when you try to make a post from a phone. Let me edit the second sentence in the second paragraph.</p>

<p>

For example, he created the Blount program, which established the idea of luxury (at the time) housing and generous scholarships to lure honors students.

</p>

[feenotype]

<p>[Capstone</a> reflects on past president | The Crimson White](<a href=“YouA moves from Youtube – The Crimson White”>YouA moves from Youtube – The Crimson White)</p>

<p>

The University of Alabama’s 25th president, Andrew Sorensen, died Sunday at age 72. Many former and present UA faculty and staff members remember Sorensen, president from 1996-2002, as a savvy person who was not afraid of the limelight.</p>

<p>Joseph Phelps, chair of the public relations department, remembers the University thriving under Sorensen despite funding cuts in the state legislature.</p>

<p>“It was pretty tough times during his tenure for the economy,” Phelps said. “Financially, it was a difficult time to be here, but the University still made progress. Even though salaries were stagnant and we were kind of falling behind our peer institutions, the University as a whole was moving forward and becoming a better university.</p>

<p>“Even during difficult financial times and with no faculty raises for motivation, the University still moved forward under his leadership,” Phelps said. “And that’s a pretty good legacy to have.”</p>

<p>**Tom Land, University Archives Institutional Records Analyst said Sorensen focused a lot on promoting research and bringing National Merit Scholars to the University.</p>

<p>“That was his big thing,” Land said. “He was trying to attract high-level students to the University in addition to what we already had.”</p>

<p>The University gained recognition as being one of the top 50 public institutions in the country by U.S. News and World Report while Sorensen was president. The Blount Undergraduate Initiative began under his tenure, and the Blount Living Learning Center was dedicated during his time, as well.</p>

<p>“Dr. Andrew Sorensen’s presidency was a time of significant achievement for our system and this state,” UA System Chancellor Malcolm Portera said. “We were saddened to learn of his sudden death, and we extend our deep condolences to his beloved wife Donna and their family, who were such a vibrant part of this community.”</p>

<p>Emily Jamison, director of volunteer and special services, told The Crimson White in a farewell story to Sorensen in 2002 that he took the University from the fourth tier to the top tier in six years. She called it an “amazing accomplishment.”**</p>

<p>In the story “Sorenson says goodbye to UA,” Katina Powe writes that Sorensen “did not fit the traditional description for a president at a Southern university, with the accent complimented with occasional southern slang and a down-home personality.”</p>

<p>Sorensen told the reporter at that time, “I’ve taught at the University of England and I’m not English,” he said. “I’m going to be president of eight universities in South Carolina, and I’m not a South Carolinian. My attitude is that the talents I have applied can be used in any geographical setting.”</p>

<p>Sorensen arrived at the Capstone after serving as provost at the University of Florida. Sorensen is known for boosting the University’s national status, before moving on to take the presidency at the University of South Carolina.</p>

<p>Sorensen’s last job was senior vice president for university development, as well as president of the Ohio State University Foundation.</p>

<p>He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Donna, two sons, Aaron and Benjamin, and one grandson, Art.

</p>