"First, fire the football coach"

Robert F. Goheen, Visionary Princeton President, Dies at 88

By Douglas Martin

Robert F. Goheeen, who as president of Princeton revolutionized the university by admitting women, buttressing finances, and doubling the space in campus buildings, died on Monday in Princeton, N.J. He was 88. . . .

When the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, early in his tenure as president of Notre Dame, asked Dr. Goheen in 1952 how his school, much the same size as Princeton, could go about getting Princeton's reputation for scholarship, Dr. Goheen answered, "First, fire the football coach."

"The verdict is what might have been expected"

Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard, 1869-1909

American college football has now been played long enough to make possible a judgment as to the success of eminent football players in after life. The verdict is what might have been expected. It clearly appears that neither the bodily nor the mental qualities which characterize football players are particularly serviceable to young men who have their way to make in the intellectual callings. Football toughness is not the kind of toughness which is most profitable in after life. … To make one’s greatest exertions in the presence of shouting thousands and of the newspaper extra is bad preparation for the struggles of professional men, who must generally do their best work alone or in the presence of a few critical observers. Even for modern warfare the violent competitive sports afford no appropriate preparation, inasmuch as in real warfare the combatants seldom see each other.

New York Tribune, April 17, 1908

"Putting the Wheels Back On"

Members of the Rutgers community often ask "what does a real university president look like?" A recent column about Yale's Richard Levin in the Wall Street Journal gives some idea of the chasm separating the Francis L. Lawrences and Richard L. McCormicks of higher education from university presidents who provide leadership. Herewith, some excerpts:

Yale Safeguards Its Top Spot

By David Wessel

When Richard Levin became president of Yale in 1993, he knew it wasn't assured of a spot in the top ranks, despite a distinguished reputation and lustrous history. "The three presidents before Levin didn't have the inclination to expand Yale's international involvement," says Gaddis Smith, a retired Yale professor writing a history of the university. Mr. Levin's predecessor Benno Schmidt bequeathed a deficit and a dispirited faculty. The faculty "just wanted the wheels put back on," Mr. Smith says. "There was a longing not so much for specific leadership, but for leadership." . . . Mr. Levin's 15-year tenure offers a case study in expanding and redirecting a venerable institution that, along with public and private peers, is vital to American prosperity.

. . . .

His first steps were defensive: moving to renovate decaying downtown New Haven, Conn., and spending $3.5 billion on Yale's own buildings to make up for years of deferred maintanance. "These were necessary, but they don't catapult you into the lead," Mr. Levin says.

The next steps were forward-looking. . . . Mr. Levin increased the size of Yale's campus by 50% last year, buying a 136-acre tract west of New Haven. The tract came with 550,00 square feet of modern laboratory space. . . .

One strength of American higher education has long been its diversity in size, goals, and objectives. But standing still is a sure route to decay, and the glacial pace at which some U.S. universities are changing isn't much better.