As colleges across the nation face daunting tasks of budget splicing and fundraising that Chancellor Michael Martin calls a necessity of today’s administrators, Martin listed some of his own college administrator inspirations.
“I just don’t think it’s the sort of thing that captures people’s attention in light of other things they can be captured by,” Martin said.
Administrators should have a well-defined sense of themselves and their values, but those can’t always be written on paper, Martin said.
“I have discovered in this job the very things you do the best are the things you can’t tell others about,” Martin said.
Sherry Allison, president of Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Allison is the president of SIPI, a national Indian Community College and Land Grant Institution comprised of American Indian and Alaskan Native students.
“Sherry’s a Najavo woman with a Ph.D. who went home to help save a Native American university called SIPI,” Martin said. “I have watched her … and then I’ve watched people help her do it who I believe are also environment.”
Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami
The University of Miami was plagued with football scandal this year when long-time football booster and incarcerated Ponzi-schemer Nevin Shapiro revealed he was giving illegal perks to football players. Martin called Shalala heroic for “dealing with this administrator.”
Kerr led the University of California system for nine years and is credited with coining the concept that all students, regardless of monetary situations, should be entitled to education. Kerr also developed the multi-campus public institution model that the LSU System follows.
Chuck Young, former chancellor of UCLA and former University of Florida president
Young spent 29 years as the chancellor of UCLA and increased the university’s budget from millions to billions of dollars.
“We’re constantly in some mode in making sure we can fund a university. But if we assemble a good team, you can be part of setting that agenda,” Martin said.
Young was also the chairman of the Association of American Universities and was a member of the NCAA Presidents Commission.
 
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Contact Andrea Gallo at [email protected]