Shock waves were sent around the state last week when Gary Sherrer abruptly resigned as chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents.
In a statement he said he was at odds with fellow regents and it was not conducive to the direction of the board. The AP cited that Sherrer was upset that he was not selected to lead the ESU presidential search committee.
As an ESU alum, Sherrer was ESU’s biggest advocate on the Regents board. He was passionate about ESU and it’s success.
Sherrer lobbied that he wanted to lead the search committee. Many community members felt Sherrer was the right person for the job. He would have kept a tight focus on the project, would have kept people on task, and would have bull-dogged a positive outcome.
Over the years many have felt comfortable with Sherrer because he has given so much to Emporia, from being an ESU graduate to teaching leadership classes at the college to bringing many jobs and economic development to our community when he was Lt. Governor of Kansas.
Rumor has it that perhaps his no-nonsense approach and an urgency to get things done likely disturbed some board members. And, behind the scenes, regents started playing political games to ensure Sherrer would not lead the selection committee.
Whatever happened behind closed doors is unfortunate and these events have many questioning the intent of the Regents.
Our community wish is simple. We want the best person possible to lead the presidential search and we want the best person selected as the next president for Emporia State University.
Politics and political wrangling at the state level do little to help our community move forward.
Summer_Breeze (anonymous) says...
Gary Sherrer's abrupt and petulant resignation from the Board of Regents is unfortunate. Instead of accusing the other Regents of playing political games, I prefer to believe that they considered that Mr. Sherrer might not be reappointed as a Regent when his term expires on June 30, and so they did not want a "lame duck" heading the search committee for ESU's new president. I think that was prudent of them. I recall that Mr. Sherrer also resigned abruptly from a position on the ESU Foundation's Board. Perhaps this is a pattern of behavior indicating someone who doesn't like to play unless things go his way....
May 25, 2011 at 1:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Thanks for a good editorial comment, Chris. You're right about politics at the state level doing little to help our community move forward.
It is my understanding that Sherrer does indeed like to be in charge. Perhaps Summer Breeze is correct about that pattern of behavior.
At any rate, it sure sounds like the current board wants to just practice business as usual.
May 25, 2011 at 3:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
frsaffer (anonymous) says...
Anyone that has spent more than 5 minutes with Gary Sherrer knows he is a no nonsense guy that gets the job done and gets it done right. I guess Summer Breeze just needed an excuse to use "petulant" in a complete sentence.
June 8, 2011 at 9:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )