The Orbis

Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Opinion

Chancellor Gordon Gee was, by my own account, a moderately progressive leader. Hired in 2000 with a mandate to bring our traditionally conservative school into the 21st century, Gordon Gee did just that. First, he abolished the athletic department, placing emphasis instead on student life outside of athletics. He enforced Title IX, most controversially by scrapping the men's soccer team - and while this move disappointed many students, it led to increased opportunities for female athletes. Gee supported several efforts to make our school more appealing to accomplished faculty, particularly by overhauling the tenure review process and updating the university's parental leave policy, both of which were hugely progressive steps. Finally, he made significant efforts to improve diversity among the students and faculty. All of these positions have been radically successful in improving Vanderbilt's national standing - our academics are flourishing, our applicant pool has risen significantly, and our athletic program, which seemed doomed, is doing better than ever.

However, Gee failed to engage other progressive issues - for instance, the Living Wage movement, and his own involvement in mountaintop coal removal - which has led to ambivalence about Gee's legacy as a progressive leader. I have no reservations in saying that Gee presided over a period of positive change at Vanderbilt, but I have to wonder: how much power did the man actually have to make changes? Did he have to push for changes that were made, and did he push for changes that did not get made? What, exactly, does a chancellor do, besides raise a lot of money, give speeches, and interact with students and faculty? In other words, how much was Gee directly responsible for leading and instituting change at Vanderbilt, and what can be realistically expected from our next chancellor?

I have to admit complete ignorance about what the Chancellor Search Committee is even looking for when they say they are searching for Gee's replacement. The process is almost completely opaque - I would love to know where, exactly, they go to find candidates, and how they evaluate these candidates. I do know that the twelve members of the Chancellor Search Committee are all members of the Board of Trust. I suspect that, while the chancellor is important as a figurehead and rallying point for the university, it is the Board of Trust who wields the true power at Vanderbilt, and it is ultimately their priorities that will prevail when it comes time to appoint Gee's replacement.

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