If one is looking for hints as to the leadership style of Washington College’s new president, Sheila Bair, it might be best to get to know her political mentor, the former senator from Kansas, Bob Dole.
For more that eight years, Bair worked and learned from Dole while he served as the Senate Majority Leader, and it’s hard not to see that some of his famous drive to “get stuff done” has rubbed off on his mentee.
In her Spy interview, Bair talks about the Dole style of leadership and the need to push governments and institutions to do the right thing for their people. From her tenure at the FDIC relentlessly defending millions of small depositors in the aftermath of the Great Recession to her current dedication to her students as they deal with debt and a competitive road to a good job, Bair would never be accused of lacking a vision for her work.
President Bair also talks candidly about Washington College, the hospital, and its relationship with Chestertown. While she freely admits that nine months in office is too short a period to have developed matured ideas on how to moves forward on the economic growth of the region, she is beginning to see a way for this very old town-gown relationship to find win-win projects in the future.
This video is approximately thirteen minutes in length
David Foster says
This was a wonderful interview and I am especially pleased that President Bair spoke so clearly about the frighteningly strong parallel between the Housing Bubble that led to our great recession and the current “Education Bubble.” When she spoke about the need for colleges to have “skin in the game” and a stake in students being able to graduate and go on to successful careers (as well as being able to repay their student loans), I couldn’t help but think about the antithesis of such a model – Trump University.
I also wonder, as President Bair reviews options for helping to keep tuition affordable, what she thinks about the recent announcement by Purdue University that it will begin promoting another form of “skin in the game” arrangement in which the student receiving tuition assistance will commit to an income share agreement or ISA. As Purdue describes this program, repayment of those loans would then be linked to the salaries they earned after graduation.
Kay MacIntosh says
Great interview! As a former College staffer now working for the Town, I anticipate a very bright era of Town-Gown cooperation and collaboration under President Bair, Board Chair Larry Culp, and other campus leaders who understand how interdependent and important the College and Chestertown are to each other’s long term success.