The University of Toledo must find an exceptional president to replace Dr. Gregory Postel who is leaving to take the top leadership position at the giant University of Cincinnati Health System. (“UT trustees now begin the search for a new leader,” Thursday)
Since arriving in July of 2020 Dr. Postel guided UT through the coronavirus pandemic, strengthened the finances at the University of Toledo Medical Center, solidified the partnership agreement between the university and ProMedica, and presided over creation of a strategic plan to carry the university to 2028.
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Unfortunately, enrollment has continued to plummet, and UT is in the midst of downsizing or eliminating 48 academic programs and cutting the university operating budget by $28 million.
Clearly, a challenge awaits the next president and university trustees must make a wise selection to lead a rebound from decline. Demonstrated ability to manage a tight budget and attract a talented senior management team is essential. Ideal is a gifted communicator who can create emotional bonds with alumni and friends that produce financial gifts.
By any realistic measurement the University of Toledo Foundation with $711 million in assets is an underappreciated source of UT strength that can be greatly improved by a president able to make fund-raising a priority.
The university strategic plan should be refocused with measurable goals by the incoming president. By way of example: the call to distinguish UT regionally, nationally, and internationally does not adequately set goals or priorities.
While UT is ranked 280 in national universities by U.S. News and World Report, tied with Bowling Green State University, it is not ranked in the far more useful categories of best for value or best for social mobility. If the University of Toledo is known as a high value educator powering upward social mobility for students, the goal of distinction will have meaning.
The university’s strategic goal of delivering relevant and innovative academic programs can surely facilitate the upward social mobility mission we suggest if the next president is willing to nudge students toward a unique UT program.
Leadership coursework is offered at UT to both undergraduates and graduate students, on campus and online. In examining the curriculum of many other universities, we have not found any with the devotion to leadership training that exists at UT.
Moreover, leadership is an essential skill that is not made obsolete by new technology and which practically assures career success. The University of Toledo has the ability to produce a high value degree providing upward social mobility earning the distinction in ratings its strategic plan has set as a goal. Driving a leadership component into all UT degrees would make the university a contender for status as an innovative university, another category where they are currently unranked.
The providential hiring of Henry J. Doermann because his innovative PhD thesis helped save UT from financial collapse in 1928 and his vision moved the university from a vocational school to a center of higher education. The University of Toledo is still profoundly shaped by the vision of one highly successful hiring decision.
Now nearly a century later, university trustees need to make another defining decision that turns out as well.
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