New President at Lewis & Clark

As the Oregonian reported today, Barry Glassner has been hired as the new president at my alma mater, Lewis & Clark College.  This appears to be an extraordinarily good hire, someone with a record of experience and success and will go along way to erase the memory of Thomas Hochstetter, the previous president whose appointment baffled me.  He was embarrassingly bad and a real lightweight professionally, I couldn't understand why the college could not find someone better.

Happily, the college seems to have punched well above its weight this time.  One suspects that Portland itself had a lot to do with it for his CV has no liberal arts college experience on it either as a student or professional. His choice is odd, given that he was on tack for a university president position, so one, in fact, hopes that it was the allure of Portland that brought him to LC because otherwise I would be suspicious.

I understand that 90% of his job is external relations and I wish him well, but I also hope that he strives to improve the quality and quantity of the academic research that college faculty engage in.  Good liberal arts colleges are focused on teaching but also have faculty that are engaged and current in their fields.  This has not always been the case at LC.

So welcome Professor Glassner, and good luck.