EDMUND BURKEEveryone who has ever eaten in a restaurant thinks he knows how to run one, it’s often said. But if you haven’t waited tables, worked in a restaurant kitchen, purchased food from commercial vendors, had experience hiring, retaining, and supervising chefs and other staff, negotiated rents with landlords, learned from hard experience what dishes appeal to customers and what don’t (even if they appeal to you), written business plans that impress bankers enough to lend you money at reasonable rates, and figured out how to make all of this fit together in a way that will earn a profit, then you haven’t gotten a clue. The naïve overconfidence that afflicts some people who were simply customers surely helps explain why most restaurants fail.
Things are much the same for colleges and universities: Everyone who has attended one thinks she know how to run one, even though she may be clueless – and clueless about being clueless. That certainly appears to be the case with Helen Dragas, head of the governing board of the University of Virginia.
Dragas was a student at the University of Virginia, where she earned both a bachelor’s degree in economics and foreign affairs and an M.B.A. Thereafter, she went into the family real estate development business, in which, by all accounts, she has been quite successful. She now heads her family’s company. In 2008, Virginia Governor Tom Kaine appointed Dragas to her alma mater’s governing board.
In January 2011, the board selected Theresa A. Sullivan to be the next president of the University of Virginia. Sullivan had impressive credentials for the job. She had a distinguished career as a teacher and scholar in sociology, and became chair of the sociology department at the University of Texas. She transitioned into university administration, serving in a number of important positions at Texas before becoming provost (the official in charge of academic affairs) at the University of Michigan. As is the University of Virginia, Texas and Michigan are among the nation’s best public universities, so Sullivan came to Virginia well versed in how great public universities operate.
In July 2011, Helen Dragas became head of U. Va.’s governing board. About a year later, Dragas paid a surprise visit on Sullivan and forced her to resign. Dragas’ action provoked a firestorm of protest from Virginia’s faculty, students, alumni, and contributors. Why, they wanted to know, was Sullivan – after only a year and half in the job – forced out? In several tries, Dragas failed utterly to articulate a persuasive reason for getting rid of Sullivan, who clearly had won great respect from faculty and other university constituencies. Dragas seemed to think that Sullivan wasn’t moving Virginia fast enough into the suddenly chic world of massive open online courses, though, as it turned out, Sullivan had been proceeding with a plan to do just that – not to mention that, even if true, this was a dubious reason to fire a university president. It was revealed that Dragas persuaded Sullivan to resign by telling her that there were enough votes on the board to fire Sullivan if she didn’t leave voluntarily; but, in fact, the board had never discussed forcing out Sullivan and some board members claimed total surprise at Dragas’ action.
The university senate adopted a resolution expressing support for Sullivan and a lack of support for Dragas. Governor Bob McDonnell publicly told the board that if it didn’t quickly resolve its differences, he’d fire and replace all its members.
The board voted unanimously to reinstate Sullivan. Dragas and Sullivan provided some nice photo ops, smiling and walking together to the meeting at which Sullivan was reinstated. (I’ve written about some of these earlier events here.)
Then the wackiest decision of all was made by Governor Bob McDonnell. When Dragas’ term expired, he reappointed her head of the university’s governing board. What was he thinking? Two things had been demonstrated beyond all reasonable dispute: First, Helen Dragas was a disaster as a university trustee. Even had she been right about the need to replace Sullivan – about which I am highly dubious – she went about trying to do it in a grossly ham-handed way. Second, their public statements and photo ops notwithstanding, Dragas and Sullivan could not possibly have any respect for one another. Moreover, they must have very different ideas about what is best for the University of Virginia. At least, after everything that transpired, one hopes that’s the case.
Governor MacDonnell should have anticipated that, after the drubbing she had received in the press, Dragas would want to prove herself right in the end. Otherwise, she would have done the sensible and magnanimous thing of declining reappointment, letting someone take over who could work with Theresa A. Sullivan – and someone Sullivan and the university community could trust. That would have been a bitter pill for Dragas to swallow, to be sure; it would cast Sullivan as the winner and Dragas as the humiliated loser in the struggle. But if Dragas had even a little wisdom, and a desire to put the interests of the University of Virginia before her own, that is what she would have done.
The Washington Post now reports that, predictably, Dragas is continuing to make Sullivan’s job a hell on earth. Dragas recently gave Sullivan a proposed list of 65 goals and told her that if Sullivan did not provide a satisfactory explanation in less than week why they should not be adopted, they would become permanent.
A university board of trustees properly sets broad goals and directions, decides whether the university president is making reasonable progress toward them, and after due deliberation replaces a president who, in their judgment, is not effective. But real estate developers are fools if they think they know enough to provide a university president with a list of 65 goals. Suppose the roles were reversed, and Theresa A. Sullivan – a sociologist and university administrator – were made chair of the board of directors of Dragas’ real estate development company? I’d bet then she’d understand the foolishness of an amateur in her business giving her a list of 65 goals. And if she had been told that if she didn’t satisfactorily respond to the proposed list in less than a week, the goals would be permanent, I’ll bet she’d understand how insulting it is to treat someone that way.
Thomas Jefferson, who took more satisfaction in founding the University of Virginia than in any of his other achievements, must be spinning in his grave.