Dive Brief:
- Scott Scarborough abruptly announced his resignation as president of the University of Akron this week, ending a short tenure that was nevertheless marred by steady criticism of his decisions.
- Inside Higher Ed reports faculty were among his main critics, and they argued that Scarborough, who started his career in business, did not understand the university’s mission or respect academic values, violating principles of shared governance.
- Scarborough’s push to rebrand Akron as the Ohio Polytechnic Institute, his lavish remodeling of the presidential residence and his negotiations with ITT Educational Services to get Akron more national scope were among his most criticized moves.
Dive Insight:
Two of the major controversies surrounding Scarborough are reflective of similar struggles throughout the higher education sector today. One is the tension between institutional leaders with business backgrounds rather than traditional academic credentials. Many boards of trustees are looking for non-academic expertise in this new era of tight budgets and high competition, but faculty rarely support the decision, including more recently at the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina system.
Second is the debate over administrative excess in higher education. Scarborough’s renovations to the presidential home cost nearly $1 million shortly after the university laid off hundreds of people. Illinois’ public colleges have taken significant heat in this area in the last year.