PonyFans.com

Honestly, why?

He does raise money.

Hey David Miller was elected secretary!

The predictions of Gerald Turner's demise have always been overblown by critics with no say in the matter. He has done an outstanding job at this University and has always had the full support of the board. He'll leave on his own terms

You down with rgt? Yea you know me!

He's about a 100 million short at the business school. Time to get serious about academic advancement instead of physical plant.

I am grateful for what RGT has done for SMU and he gets my vote for best ever smu president. But enough is enough. All the deans and higher ups just leaned back and relaxed, confident they all have another 5 years of auto-pilot performance.

The only way I am ok with this is if quietly, the process of vetting our next president is getting ready to commence. If we just go another 5 years of status quo, I am really concerned about where we are going to be. If we just keep raising the price of attendance 5% each year and continue to drift academically, there is a big iceberg out there with our name on it - and an old man at the wheel......

But hasn't SMU been progressively moving up the US News rankings over RGT's tenure? TCU and Baylor also appear to be making ranking progress, while UT is declining, so what more should be done? Hopefully now that a lot of infrastructure has been dramatically improved, the $50M in scholarships and faculty support will get traction.

The MBA rankings are an issue but undergrad Cox stats have been very strong. Not sure about its relative rankings.

friarwolf wrote:I am grateful for what RGT has done for SMU and he gets my vote for best ever smu president. But enough is enough. All the deans and higher ups just leaned back and relaxed, confident they all have another 5 years of auto-pilot performance.

The only way I am ok with this is if quietly, the process of vetting our next president is getting ready to commence. If we just go another 5 years of status quo, I am really concerned about where we are going to be. If we just keep raising the price of attendance 5% each year and continue to drift academically, there is a big iceberg out there with our name on it - and an old man at the wheel......

Friarwolf - Which deans are on auto pilot? Business and Education deans are new - have not yet started, Perkins dean has been in place less than one year, Dedman Humanities and Sciences Dean arrived in August 2014, Meadows school of Arts dean began his position in November 2014, and Jennifer Collins Dean of Dedman Law began her position in July 2014. The only dean that has been in his position more than three years is the dean of the engineering school who became dean in 2010. The former deans of the engineering, Education, Meadows Arts, and Dedman Humanities and Sciences schools all left for president positions at other universities and colleges. So, I am a bit confused about your statement.

I am including the 2 that just left. As far as the 2 new hires, I really hope they are leaders who are going to demand higher levels of performance and achievement. Of all of the deans who have left over the past 5 -7 years, can you point to any kind of lasting achievment, performance or ranking improvement they contributed? And their replacements?

In broad strokes, the quality of our students has been increasing every year for the past 10 -15 years. The improvements in our infrastructure is incredible. But the rankings across the board have remained stagnant to regressive. You can downplay the rankings if you so choose but they remain the scorecard everyone looks at. I lay a lot of the blame at the feet of the deans who are responsible for developing our students. They need to make greater demands of the professors to up their game.

In my opinion, Turner's greatest failing is his inability to demand excellence from his team. He is far too accepting of marginal performance.

https://7sage.com/top-law-school-rankings/
Last 3 years' average Law School ranking was 44. Previous five years was 49.

FT MBA program is the only area I'm aware of that's fallen. It hit #12 in one BW poll about ten years ago and it's too bad the School didn't make better use of it for those two years. I believe RGT was pleased with Niemi's revenue generation, even at the expense of FT MBA rankings. After all, he was asked to stay on longer than he wanted to see out the Capital Campaign.

RGT's extension means that unless he really messes up, he will be here for 10 years. we will be in the middle of capital campaign, and you do not want to change your horse in the middle of the river.

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:Hey David Miller was elected secretary!

Can you picture this, "President Turner says to the board Secretary..........I need to dictate a memo", and David sits on his lap.

Stallion wrote:The predictions of Gerald Turner's demise have always been overblown by critics with no say in the matter. He has done an outstanding job at this University and has always had the full support of the board. He'll leave on his own terms

He's done an outstanding job of raising money. Really feels like SMU could've improved more as a university nationally based on the explosive growth in the Metroplex during his tenure here, though

kc711 wrote:

friarwolf wrote:I am grateful for what RGT has done for SMU and he gets my vote for best ever smu president. But enough is enough. All the deans and higher ups just leaned back and relaxed, confident they all have another 5 years of auto-pilot performance.

The only way I am ok with this is if quietly, the process of vetting our next president is getting ready to commence. If we just go another 5 years of status quo, I am really concerned about where we are going to be. If we just keep raising the price of attendance 5% each year and continue to drift academically, there is a big iceberg out there with our name on it - and an old man at the wheel......

Friarwolf - Which deans are on auto pilot? Business and Education deans are new - have not yet started, Perkins dean has been in place less than one year, Dedman Humanities and Sciences Dean arrived in August 2014, Meadows school of Arts dean began his position in November 2014, and Jennifer Collins Dean of Dedman Law began her position in July 2014. The only dean that has been in his position more than three years is the dean of the engineering school who became dean in 2010. The former deans of the engineering, Education, Meadows Arts, and Dedman Humanities and Sciences schools all left for president positions at other universities and colleges. So, I am a bit confused about your statement.

The previous Business and Law deans seemed to have overstayed their welcomes by a few years. And then the Law dean got busted with a hooker (albeit after he was demoted, but still teaching at SMU)...whoops!