Enrollment declines and safety concerns on campus. Government funding headwinds. These are just a few of the challenges a new University of Minnesota president will face upon taking office next July.
Nationally, higher education is held in lower esteem, according to opinion polls, which won't be helped by the high-profile hearings on campus antisemitism that resulted in the University of Pennsylvania's president resigning last week as her peers at Harvard and MIT faced bipartisan backlash for their tone-deaf testimony on the issue.
So the last thing the U needs is controversy over conflict-of-interest issues that would distract the institution from its mission and end whatever honeymoon a new leader will have. It's appropriate that the University of Minnesota regents are mulling creation of a new panel that would review possible conflict of interests for its president. The panel, as initially considered, could include two regents, a compliance officer, faculty senate leader and a representative from the community. And unlike the current construct, this panel would not include any representatives who report to the U president.
"The goal is to make sure that this is a group that is in some sense not beholden to the president," Janie Mayeron, chair of the Board of Regents, told an editorial writer. "We're really looking for a group of people that will reflect the kind of independence that we think is important to the whole question of conflict management."
Ultimately, however, it's the regents who make the call on any possible conflicts. And unfortunately, the regents' recent performance on such issues is mixed.
They seem to have handled interim President Jeff Ettinger's role with the Hormel Foundation well, with Ettinger appearing to be clearly focused on the U's myriad issues and opportunities. The board showed poor judgment, however, in initially allowing then-President Joan Gabel to accept a lucrative position on the board of Securian Financial. Besides the fact that the firm at the time had direct business with the school, the ensuing controversy distracted from needed leadership at the state's land-grant university, which would have only been exacerbated had she continued with Securian's board. (Gabel eventually resigned her board role, and soon thereafter from her U presidency to become chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh).
The potential conflict-of-interest panel is not likely to require any additional funding, said Mayeron, who added that "We're still in the stage of looking at what's going to be the best practice to perform the work and to instill confidence in the outcome of whatever is the recommendation out of that group."
The proposed panel may indeed instill confidence regarding conflict-of-interest issues and avoid a controversy when the U and its eventual leader can least afford it.
But ultimately, the best way to garner the confidence of the university community and the state it serves is to make it completely clear that candidates cannot expect to continue or commence any outside activities that could risk a conflict of interest in the first place.
The challenges for the U — particularly on its flagship campus in Minneapolis and St. Paul — are that significant and the outcome that consequential. The presidency is truly a full-time job (and then some), with commensurate (and then some) compensation. If the perceived "perfect candidate" has a conflict of interest they're reluctant to shed then they're not the perfect candidate, and the regents should not equivocate as they intensify their search.
"Our recent experience is, I think appropriately, causing us to hit the pause button and ask ourselves: 'Do we have the best process in place to evaluate this particular issue of conflicts [of interest] for the president?'" Mayeron said. "I think it's absolutely appropriate and consistent with our processes generally, which is to review all of our policies to see if they are current and are they doing what they are supposed to do and are they benefiting the university and beyond?"
Those are the right questions for the regents to ask as they seek a leader who looks to benefit the university and beyond — which should mean the state and its residents, not the U president.
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U should prevent conflicts of interest - Star Tribune
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