Rossbacher Background and Other UA Presidential Search Notes

We only got the names late Sunday afternoon and I don't have time to do this justice, but since Dr. Rossbacher is the 'Outsider' whom

Alaskans know the least about, here's a little I've found to get  a sense about her. 

[Photo from Southern Polytechnic - President's Page.]

There's an audio interview from last August with Dr. Rossbacher at tagtvonline.

According to this audio, Dr. Rossbacher is the first woman geologist to be a college president in the United States.
Enrollment this fall is a record high of over 5,000 students. 


She's the President at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia.  Their website shows a school with a heavy emphasis on engineering and technology - befitting a Polytechnic.  The five schools include:

• The School of Architecture, Civil Engineering Technology, and Construction
• The School of Computing and Software Engineering
• The School of Engineering Technology and Management
• The School of Arts and Sciences
• Division of Engineering
• Extended University

What I notice about the University website is its transparency regarding how the university works.  There's one page that has all the (presumably) key committee minutes avaiable for the last few years, as well as a blog-like report called the Weekly Blab.  This is appears to be the page of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.  You can check out all the key committee meeting minutes and the Weekly Blab. 


The Faculty page includes a lot of links - including back to the Vice President of Academic Affairs page.  Here are some other things on that page:

Here are some things that may be of interest to new faculty:

• New Faculty "Quick Start" Guide--2008
• New Faculty Biographies (2006)
• New Faculty Biographies (2007)
• New Faculty Biographies (2008)
• New Faculty Biographies (2009)
  
• Bob Harbort's "How to Use Technology" Intro
• "Standards of Academic Content" document
• "An Example of Proper Writing" document

Here are some things that may be of interest to advisors:

• New Faculty "Quick Start" Guide--2008 (contains advising tips)
• How to use Banner to assign advisees to advisors
• How to use Banner to look at advisee records
  

Text of Speeches [from the President's Page]

• "A is for Accreditation" -- State of the University, Fall Kickoff 2009 (August 20, 2009)
• "Presentation about Customer Service and SIx Sigma at SPSU" to Board of Regents on April 18, 2007
• "State of the University" - Fall Convocation 2006 (September 12, 2006)
• SPSU faculty/staff campaign remarks: The John Lennon challenge - Remarks delivered on 8 December 2005; a prize was given to the person who could most closely identify the number of song titles by John Lennon incorporated into the comments
• SPSU faculty/staff campaign remarks, with titles of John Lennon songs identified
• "SPSU and the 1920s" - Remarks at the SPSU Foundation Gala, (October  22, 2005)
• "Presentation to the Board of Regents" - BoR Meeting hosted at SPSU (October 11, 2005)
  • "SPSU to BoR" - Powerpoint Presentation, 48.1 MB
  • "SPSU to BoR" - PDF version, 9.2 MB
• "Surprise" - Georgia Southern University Commencement (December 10, 2004)
• "State of the University" - Opening of 2004-2005 Academic Year (August 18, 2004)
• "The Retrospective" - Opening of 2004-2005 Academic Year (August 17, 2004)
• "Regional Metamorphism and SPSU" - Opening of 2003-2004 Academic Year (September 19, 2003)
• "Hedgehogs and Rocks" - Opening of 2002-2003 Academic Year (August 15, 2002)
• "Solve it... at SPSU" - Opening of 2000-2001 Academic Year (August 14, 2000)

I did quickly glance at the resumes available from the UA President Search pages.  Here's the vital information for Dr. Rossbacher.

RossbacherCV/Resume (pdf)
200 dpi image
Profile (pdf)

And for Chancellor Pugh:

PughCV/Resume (pdf)
200 dpi image
Profile (pdf)

Here's the same information for General Gamble: 

GambleCV/Resume (pdf)
200 dpi image
Profile (pdf)

As I said, I've focused on Rossbacher because my time is limited, but I did look at the other resumes and found this delicious typo on General Gamble's page. 

Leadership may well be his strongest suit(e), but attention to detail appears not to be.  That said,  I had a typo on an important job resume once and got the job anyway, so I don't think this is crucial.   I'm more concerned at how much of this reeks of professional public relations jargon. 

"Reputation and personal leadership philosophy synonymous 

with outstanding character and performance."

This sounds like it comes from a book of phrases with which to pad your resume.  It's not the kind of language one expects from someone "known for face-to-face, consensus building style."  But is more consistent with "unpleasant decision-making such as tough recession-proofing cost saving measures."  This is the language George Clooney used when he fired people in "Up in the Air".



I don't know the General.  He could be fantastic.  I know General Tom Case surprised us at the School of Business and Public Affairs with his decency and willingness to adjust to the University culture instead of imposing a military culture.  But he was also severely handicapped coming from a setting where he had a thousand staffers who jumped at his command and stayed up all night if necessary to complete what he asked for.  Faced with faculty who saw themselves as their own bosses and no real staff to actually get work done , my sense is that he was tremendously frustrated as Dean.