The Week

Changing the Game

Margaret Spellings could be a “game-changer” as president of the University of North Carolina system, according to one member of its Board of Governors. But much of the discussion surrounding the board’s decision last month to hire her has revolved around the opaque process by which she was picked.

Ms. Spellings, a former U.S. secretary of education, extends the list of prominent candidates from outside academe named to head public universities in recent years. The decision also stands as another recent example of a presidential hiring process in which the board at a public institution has left faculty and other stakeholders feeling ignored.

The resulting controversy led to the resignation last week of the chairman of UNC’s Board of Governors, John C. Fennebresque (above). But is the furor enough to discourage other boards from embarking on such closed searches in the future? Or to make them hesitant to consider marquee political names for such posts?

Probably not. For one thing, it isn’t difficult to see how presidents from nonacademic backgrounds appeal to governing boards. Glenn F. McConnell, a veteran member of the South Carolina Senate, and John E. Thrasher, a Florida state senator, could be expected to have some extra sway over their legislatures as presidents of the College of Charleston and Florida State University, respectively. J. Bruce Harreld, a business consultant, is expected by some at the University of Iowa to view higher education from a more entrepreneurial perspective as president. Ms. Spellings could benefit UNC with her ties to Washington and her understanding of the federal bureaucracy.

In the cases mentioned here, the boards drew criticism for interviewing only one candidate (at Florida State and North Carolina), allegedly succumbing to a powerful figure throwing his weight around (at Charleston), or hiring a president with scant connection to, or knowledge of, higher education (at Charleston and Iowa).

In North Carolina, some faculty members and students had grown dubious about the Board of Governors’ motives after it ousted Thomas W. Ross as the system’s president this year with no explanation. Faculty and students criticized the board’s lack of transparency in its search for Mr. Ross’s successor, especially after news reports identified Ms. Spellings as the lone finalist for the job.

The hiring process divided even the Board of Governors. One member, David Powers, publicly praised the then-anonymous front-runner for the position in an email to his fellow governors, calling her “an excellent choice — indeed, maybe even that ‘game changer’ that we all dream of.” But Mr. Powers also called for Mr. Fennebresque’s resignation in the same email, arguing that the controversy over the process threatened to force Ms. Spellings to be “judged in a light other than her many qualifications.” Mr. Fennebresque resigned shortly thereafter.

Ms. Spellings now has the opportunity to be judged for her work as president. But the next time one of these big state-system jobs comes open, keep an eye on how transparent the process is and how many nontraditional candidates make the shortlist. (Read more here.)

Offline

The bright future of online education took on a spot of tarnish last month when the University of Florida announced that it would cancel its contract with Pearson Embanet, a division of the for-profit education-and-publishing giant Pearson.

Pearson Embanet had administered UF Online, the university’s online degree-granting program, since 2013. Florida would have paid Pearson as much as $186 million over the life of the initial 11-year contract, but enrollment that failed to crack 2,000 led the administration to re-evaluate its commitment.

Pearson runs successful online-degree programs for Arizona State University and Georgetown University, among others, but this is not the first time a college and a for-profit “online-education enabler” have run into trouble. Pearson still administers California State University’s Cal State Online, but the scope of the deal has been scaled back as a result of low enrollment. After all, tensions lie latent in any collaboration between a business with its eye on the bottom line and a university with an altruistic focus.

Pearson isn’t going anywhere, and neither are enablers. They provide an important service for institutions whose missions call for expanding their online offerings, though they may not have the expertise or resources to brew a successful program themselves. But misfires like the Florida deal stand as examples that not every commercial solution will fit every university out of the box.

And Now This

Wealthy colleges are getting even more wealthy, according to the new Philanthropy 400, an annual survey of charitable giving conducted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Private donations to the 400 largest nonprofit organizations in the country, including 43 colleges, rose 5.1 percent from the 2014 survey. Once again, Harvard University brought in the most money, nearly $1.2 billion, a 45-percent increase from last year. … Why do students move off campus? According to Charles J. Dougherty, president of Duquesne University, they want to pursue a “libertine lifestyle” of alcohol and sexual frolic not available in the residence halls of the Roman Catholic institution. Mr. Dougherty’s remarks, addressed to faculty members, landed him in a few headlines. He later clarified that he “did not mean to imply that every student who moves off campus does so for these reasons.” … Midwestern State University, in Texas, began installing peepholes in the doors of nearly 270 faculty and staff offices because of heightened concerns about safety. Meanwhile, a criminal-justice instructor at Northwest College, in Wyoming, apologized after accidentally leaving a pistol in a classroom. Dave Patterson, a reserve deputy sheriff, said he started bringing his gun to class after the mass shooting last month at Umpqua Community College, in Oregon.

Symbolic Victory

Colleges, like many other civic institutions, have spent a lot of time recently pondering what to do about Confederate flags, monuments, and other symbols linked to the slave-holding antebellum South on their campuses. The dilemma has proved especially vexing in Mississippi, where the Confederate battle flag is incorporated into the design of the state flag.

Last week the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi, both public institutions, announced that they would no longer fly the Mississippi flag on their campuses. They joined the state’s three historically black universities — Alcorn State, Jackson State, and Mississippi Valley State — which had already stopped flying the state banner. Morris H. Stocks, interim chancellor of Ole Miss, and Rodney D. Bennett, president of Southern Mississippi, said they responded to calls from faculty members and students to remove the flag. Phil Bryant, the state’s governor, a Republican, disagreed with the decision, saying that he thought publicly funded institutions “should be respectful of the people of the state.”

Removing the Mississippi flag from the state’s campuses makes an important symbolic point. But symbolism takes you only so far. If colleges in Mississippi and, of course, across the country continue the difficult work of addressing racism, economic inequality, and lack of access to a good education, that’s the way to truly remove the shadow of the Confederate flag.

Lee Gardner writes about the management of colleges and universities, higher-education marketing, and assorted other topics. Follow him on Twitter @_lee_g, or email him at lee.gardner@chronicle.com.