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UNIVERSITY NEWS McPhee gets a FIVE year contract

How do you judge a College President success? What specifically has he done to earn 250K bonus (400K yearly), or is it simply in his contract (similar to a FB coach).

He has been here 23 years. From what I understand is paid at the lower end of the scale for a university our size.

We always talked of Walker fondly, but not McPhee as fondly.

I think 23 years is enough for anyone in one position. What say you?
 
I don't know where the dnj writer got 23 years at, McPhee has been at the university since 2001, that would only be 17 years.
 
How do you judge a College President success? What specifically has he done to earn 250K bonus (400K yearly), or is it simply in his contract (similar to a FB coach).

He has been here 23 years. From what I understand is paid at the lower end of the scale for a university our size.

We always talked of Walker fondly, but not McPhee as fondly.

I think 23 years is enough for anyone in one position. What say you?
I agree Mike. He doesn't have any clout with the powers that be as evident of the recent Valpo decision. We need new blood to take MT to the next level.
 
How do you judge a College President success? What specifically has he done to earn 250K bonus (400K yearly), or is it simply in his contract (similar to a FB coach).

He has been here 23 years. From what I understand is paid at the lower end of the scale for a university our size.

We always talked of Walker fondly, but not McPhee as fondly.

I think 23 years is enough for anyone in one position. What say you?


That’s a fantastic question.

The role of the university president is multi-faceted.

The president is the face of the university. More than anything the president is the person who lobbies for financial support, is the steering wheel moving the university in strategic directions & build trust with faculty and students. They should have a pulse of the university community and also be the moral compass when any issues occur.

If you look at community involvement with a university, fundraising, growth of student involvement, growth of academic programs and overall morale on a campus, it is facilitated at the president level.

This person is the big university decision maker for strategic goals implements the board of directors decisions & sets the university vision.

There is a lot of pressure and responsibility on most presidents. And good ones are great fundraisers and faculty/students/alumni all know or like the president.

The provost is the highest academic person on a campus. This is the person who signs off on tenure and faculty promotions. The senior academic person on campus. Reports to the president.


So a president can definitely earn big salaries and bonuses depending on the financial and growth of a university under their leadership. You’re correct, the position is much like a coach.
 
I thought the board was going to be good for MT. Guess I was wrong. Are they just a rubber stamp for THEC now? WTF?

Agree with the above poster. No political clout in Nashville. That alone is reason for change.
 
I thought the board was going to be good for MT. Guess I was wrong. Are they just a rubber stamp for THEC now? WTF?

Agree with the above poster. No political clout in Nashville. That alone is reason for change.
Apparently at MT, having no clout in Nashville is reason NOT to change.
 
At the end of his contract, he will have been president for almost 20% of the existence of the university. That is a hell of a long time. I'm seriously trying to think of positives of his tenure versus negatives and outside of building new classrooms and support facilities, not sure what other positives have occurred under his watch.

A particular sore point I have is when I look at endowments of peer institutions we do not compare favorably.
 
At the end of his contract, he will have been president for almost 20% of the existence of the university. That is a hell of a long time. I'm seriously trying to think of positives of his tenure versus negatives and outside of building new classrooms and support facilities, not sure what other positives have occurred under his watch.

A particular sore point I have is when I look at endowments of peer institutions we do not compare favorably.

Agreed; the fact that the endowment hasn't risen significantly during his lengthy tenure is all you need to know; although a list of other failures could be easily given.
 
Generally speaking, I have always thought of MT's president as a puppet and figurehead of the TBR. With our own regents, I still really don't know what benefit our own board provides. In my opinion, the TBR has just been replaced by the THEC.

Does anyone have a quick reference to endowments and funding per student comparative to other Tennessee institutions.

I really feel like we have been dealt a blow with the law school. That was a haymaker.
 
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Generally speaking, I have always thought of MT's president as a puppet and figurehead of the TBR. With our own regents, I still really don't know what benefit our own board provides. In my opinion, the TBR has just been replaced by the THEC.

Does anyone have a quick reference to endowments and funding per student comparative to other Tennessee institutions.

I really feel like we have been dealt a blow with the law school. That was a haymaker.


I just googled, so these numbers maybe out of date. I did not look up private.

MT- 58.9 million (2011)
Memphis - 199 million
ETSU- 114.3 million
Chattanooga- 200 million
UTK - 1.1 billion
Tech - 65.9 million
Tennessee St - 51 million
Austin Peay - 22 million
UT-Martin 27.2 million
 
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Beaten out by Tech and roughly 25% of Chattanooga. Wow, that puts things in perspective with the work being done at MT.
 
This is where our lack of vision really shows.

We should have thanked McPhee and offered the job to Bob Corker or Phil Bredesen.

I don’t care about their political party, we would have flourished under a leader that knows how to raise money, talk to politicians, get contributions from the community and really just be a face for our university.

I think of Donna Shalala at UMiami. She was former secretary of HHS and had all they political savvy. Plus I was very impressed how involved she was on campus, knew students by name & students seemed to love her. While she was there, they destroyed their finding goals. Everything wasn’t perfect, but it won’t be anywhere. MT needs a face that people know and respect, not a “who was he again?”

The president has to be a politician or a coach type person. Instead of progressive or vision we stick with the same ole....

We are what we are and that won’t change given our current leadership.
 
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