Gary Forsee deserves every chance to succeed as the next president of the University of Missouri System.

Some on campus are skeptical, but Forsee fits the mold cast by UM Board of Curators President Don Walsworth, who said early in the selection process his group would consider a person from private industry as well as the traditional ranks of academe. Walsworth agreed the successful candidate should have a strong association with higher education, but he said the primary need is for management and finance skills to deal with the external world, including the political realm in Jefferson City.

Forsee is a graduate of the university campus at Rolla and serves on that board of trustees. He has been a prolific fundraiser and donor for the university, and he received an honorary doctorate from the Rolla campus.

A person with Forsee’s background might actually be a boon for faculty types if the new president defers on academic matters to chancellors and faculty leaders, as he says he will. This avowed decentralized approach plan will stand in some contrast to the style shown by former President Elson Floyd, who was a hands-on manager to the occasional consternation of chancellors and faculty on the several campuses.

Forsee takes office in the wake of a successful reign by a very popular interim president, Gordon Lamb. It would be unfair to assume any sort of negative comparison for Forsee, who has yet to prove himself. Lamb himself is supportive of the new permanent president, as is the overwhelming consensus of those who know him.

Forsee will have to deal early with the vagaries of his recent professional career, highlighted by his removal as chairman and CEO of the troubled Sprint Nextel Corp. The merger of the two communications companies has been difficult, and Forsee took the rap. Unless something more troubling than corporate hardball comes to light, we out here in his new career venue have no reason to doubt his promise.

Of course, we have no reason to be certain of it, either. The most the man and his new constituents can expect of each other is a wide-open playing field and benefit of doubt. Let us welcome Gary Forsee with open arms.

The greatest lesson a leader can teach is that life is a process, not an event.

- Johnetta B. Cole, educator

Advertisement