South Beach Hoosier is embarrassed to admit that he only recently became aware of this important news regarding IU's future, two weeks after the fact.http://www.ibj.com/Indianapolis Business Journal
Editorial
March 5, 2007
IU recognizes the talent within: McRobbie will provide a fresh start.
Michael McRobbie is from Australia, but he'll be the most Hoosier president of Indiana University since John Ryan stepped down 30 years ago.
And that's something to celebrate.
When the IU trustees on March 1 introduced McRobbie, now interim provost of the Bloomington campus, as the university's next president, they kicked a bad habit that started in 1987: turning over leadership of a state treasure to transient administrators with no previous connection to the university.
McRobbie, who joined IU in 1997 as vice president of information technology, will be the first IU president since Ryan to come from within the university. His welcome hiring rekindles what had been a long tradition of tapping leaders with a genuine passion for IU.
In McRobbie, IU gets a president it's familiar with who is well-versed in its culture. He seems eminently qualified to continue IU's recent successes, many of which he had a hand in, and to shore up weaknesses.
Much of the concern about the university in recent years focused on the perception that its academic reputation was slipping and that outgoing president Adam Herbert, a University of Florida administrator hired in 2003, had failed to communicate a broad vision for IU's future.
Herbert never won the confidence of IU's faculty, which came together early last year to express dissatisfaction with his leadership. Ultimately, McRobbie will have to earn trust with his on-the-job performance, but he's got a big head start on his predecessors in that regard. The faculty already knows him.
McRobbie must also shore up the university's academic reputation and silence critics by being a visible and articulate ambassador for IU. After a decade of learning the institution, it shouldn't take him long to craft a message he can deliver with passion.
He's already well-versed in the role IU plays--along with the state's other major research institutions--in modernizing Indiana's economy. He's been instrumental in securing millions of dollars of grants for scientific research at IU and revamped the university's technology infrastructure, which led to the purchase of the fastest university-owned supercomputer in the country.
More recently, he's been working on a strategy to expand and nurture IU's global presence to create more international work/study opportunities for IU students and faculty.
McRobbie's appointment is already getting high marks from state economic development experts, who believe from working with McRobbie that he'll be an aggressive and effective advocate for programs and policies that attract talent and jobs to IU and the state at large.
It's refreshing--and a bit of a relief--that IU's trustees have finally thrown their support behind an internal candidate for president. Had they ignored the growing call for an inside hire, it would've been a sign that they were badly out of touch with the state they serve.
As it is, the state's oldest and largest public university is once again in familiar--and capable--hands.
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Indianapolis Business Journal
March 12, 2007
OPINIONS EYE ON THE PIE Unsolicited advice for IU's next presidentMorton Marcus
Congratulations, Dr. McRobbie, on being selected as Indiana University's next president. I've read that you are committed to helping IU become more active in the state's economic development. I've heard that from every IU president since I arrived in 1970. To be successful, it will take major changes.
It is not sufficient to appoint a committee of administrators who then request each part of the university to submit a list of its "economic development activities" for ultimate inclusion in a three-ring binder. Economic development is not advanced by appointing an unqualified faculty member or administrator to reign as czar over an empty realm. Nor will it aid the cause to require some economic development clause in each department's mission statement.
If IU is to become an integral part of and a leader in Indiana's economic development, the commitment must be deeper. Foremost, the faculty must be involved. This is not a case of trying to get faculty in the life sciences to develop patentable products in emulation of Purdue University. IU is an institution where intellect is still valued and, in some areas, still active.
Thus, IU should be the world's foremost academic institution on economic development. Our anthropologists and sociologists must be renowned for their studies of the process of change and the resistance to change.
Some history, literature and philosophy courses could focus on economic and social change as a theme. Undoubtedly, political science professors think they have something to contribute to the subject. In particular, the economics department and business program on each campus have major roles to play in this effort.
The School of Education, a fallow field, should be a major factor in improving the performance of the state's education programs. But, without useful input from our sociologists and anthropologists, I do not see how this can happen. The Kelley School of Business should be the primary source of assistance to existing and newly formed Hoosier firms. The School of Public and Environmental Affairs has a critical role to play in developing public-sector leadership and monitoring environmental issues.
None of this works unless those recruited to the faculty have a proclivity and a preference for such involvement. Faculty must be recognized and rewarded for their economic development efforts, even if these do not result in high-octane journal articles. Thus, existing promotion and tenure policies must be revamped.
IU in the past few years has jumped on the life sciences/biotech bandwagon. It fits with IU's strengths. It fits with the strengths of certain business interests in the state. But is this bandwagon consistent with Indiana's reality today and tomorrow's potential? Here the university must be ready to offer alternatives, based on innovative research, careful analysis and diverse thought that might prove unpopular.
Therein lies the greatest weakness of IU over the past few decades. We have had no stomach to tell truth to the powerful. Our vision has been compromised by the university's fawning obeisance to the governor-of-the-moment and the powerful in the General Assembly. When the president's office does not command the respect of the faculty, and service to the state is unrewarded, faculty members turn to more personal goals.
Finally, the state's economic wellbeing requires earnest and full support from the IU president for each campus. The vision of IU statewide must be robust and funding of regional programs needs to be aggressive. It is time to make the regional campuses full partners in the university or cut them loose from the mother campus's apron strings.
IU presidents have wandered Indiana long enough bemoaning the relative decline of state support. Perhaps if we did more for the state, our efforts would be rewarded.
My best wishes, Dr. McRobbie, for your sanity, the progress of Indiana and the glory of old IU.
Marcus taught economics for more than 30 years at Indiana University and is the former director of IU's Business Research Center. His column appears weekly.
To comment on this column, send e-mail to
mortonjmarcus@yahoo.com.
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February 26, 2007
Indianapolis Business Journal
IU ready to pick insiderMcRobbie, Pescovitz among finalists for president's job, university trustees confideBy Tracy Donhardt
tdonhardt@ibj.comIndiana University appears poised to choose an internal candidate as president for the first time since it elevated John Ryan to the post 35 years ago. The decision could be announced within days. Two IU trustees confirmed that finalists include Michael McRobbie and Ora Pescovitz, IU administrators well-known to the Indianapolis business community. McRobbie, 56, is interim provost of IU Bloomington and vice president for academic affairs. Pescovitz, 50, is executive associate dean for research affairs at the IU School of Medicine as well as CEO of Riley Hospital for Children.
"I think both of them are eminently qualified," said trustee Philip Eskew, an Indianapolis
doctor. "They're highly respected. We're blessed here. We have two great leaders, either of which we'd be happy with."
Trustee William Cast said that, in addition to McRobbie and Pescovitz, there are two other internal candidates, whom he declined to name. Three of the four, including McRobbie and Pescovitz, "would be high on any recruiter's list," he said.
IU has gone outside the university for its last three presidents-Thomas Ehrlich, Myles Brand and Adam Herbert, who last year announced he would not serve beyond June 2008, when his contract expires. Herbert, a Florida university administrator before assuming IU's presidency in 2004, was widely criticized as having too low a profile and taking too long to make decisions.
Cast said there are clear pluses to pulling a president from the school's ranks.
"One advantage to an inside person is knowledge," said Cast, a Fort Wayne doctor. "It saves a year or more in terms of getting the boat moving forward again."
The nine-person board of trustees will discuss candidates at its next regularly scheduled meeting, which is March 1 and March 2 at IUPUI.
"The plan is, we'd like to announce something" at that time, Eskew said, cautioning that "things do change, however."
Eskew, director of physician and patient relations at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, said the next president needs a background in research, something both McRobbie and Pescovitz have.
Neither McRobbie nor Pescovitz could be reached for comment.
McRobbie joined IU a decade ago as vice president of information technology. In 2003, he also became vice president of research. In that role, he was instrumental in securing multimillion-dollar grants for science initiatives. A year ago, he became interim provost and vice president of academic affairs. His annual salary is $285,600.
Pescovitz, who would be IU's first female president, joined IU 19 years ago. Before becoming CEO of Riley in 2004, she was the top dean of research at the medical school.
In her current post, Pescovitz oversees $210 million in annual grants to the medical school. She also administers the Indiana Genomics Initiative, a research project funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. Her annual salary is $258,500.
Herbert, the outgoing president, earns $359,600.
Eskew hinted the field of candidates from outside IU was disappointing, perhaps because an abundance of other major universities also are trying to fill vacancies.
Two other Big Ten schools are searching for presidents-Purdue and Ohio State-and Harvard University recently chose a new leader, its first female president.
"Competition has caused our search committee to not only look at what candidates are available outside, but also those within our system," Eskew said.
Outside candidates might not have been jumping at the chance to lead IU, he said.
"There are people that feel that we have not had a good run of presidents since John Ryan, so some candidates might be thinking that's not a job they want to apply for," he said. "We need to determine what we need to do. We must improve our image and roll out our life science initiative."
The Purdue post might be drawing more outside interest, he said, because of the perception that outgoing President Martin Jischke has done an outstanding job.
"Many would like to follow him," Eskew speculated.
Sue Talbot, chairwoman of the trustees' search committee, declined to discuss names of candidates. She did confirm that trustees still expect the new leader will be on board by July.
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