So who is Mike Garrison?
Well, he was the Secretary of Tax and Revenue under Bob Wise before becoming his chief of staff at age 32. He's a lawyer at Spilman, Thomas and Battle. He's the immediate past Chairman of the WV Higher Education Policy Commission.
And that's pretty much it.
Now if you're wondering how that sort of resume makes you the next president of West Virginia's flagship university, you need to know a few other things -- mainly that Mike Garrison is easily one of the most shrewd, calculating and ultimately ballsy individuals to ever suck at the tits of West Virginia state government. Credit where credit is due: if Mike Garrison gets this job, and it's looking like he will -- it's because he saw what he wanted and just took it.
But let's rewind a bit, to the very beginning of the Wise administration. Garrison knew that Wise wouldn't make him chief of staff straight away -- that job is almost always reserved for the most loyal follower. So he asked to be Tax Commissioner, a job pretty much no one wants. But he knew it was great place to wait in the wings for the original Chief of Staff to resign -- which they frequently do in short order. And that's exactly what happened. At age 32, Mike Garrison was the new Chief. I'd call that shrewd. I'd even call it smart.
Now Some Governors enjoy governing. Bob Wise seemed... "uninterested" at best. So saying that Garrison was just Bob Wise's "Chief of Staff" is the very definition of understatement, as everyone who knew someone in or even around the Wise administration was fully aware that Mike Garrison was very much the Shadow Governor of West Virginia.
He didn't have a reputation as a sweetheart, either. People joked of doing the "Garrison Room Sweep" upon entering a place: scanning a room to see if he was there, lest the newly minted Man-Boobed Boy King of West Virginia hear what you really think. People passed around stories like trading cards; my favorite being the one about Garrison overhearing a woman badmouthing the PROMISE scholarship at Pizzeria Uno. So the story goes, he followed her to the parking lot and wrote down her license number so the State Police run her plates. I'm not sure if that story is true, or people just want it to be true.
But this is all subtext. Again, anybody who knew anybody who knew Mike Garrison knew of his great ambition in life, however dubious: to be the Next President of West Virginia University.
A lot of people seemed to write it off, because after all: what chances would a state government hack; a lawyer with no real experience in higher education what-so-ever have at being the President of WVU?
And we call those people morons, because that's exactly what David Hardesty was: a museum quality hack who got the job solely because he was best friends with the right family. Hardesty slowly won approval based on his performance, but don't forget that he faced significant opposition. The similarities are remarkable. Hell, he was even the Tax Commissioner!
Meanwhile, our hero was quietly at work, using his power as Shadow Governor to slowly but steadily stack the WVU Board of Governors (the people who actually chose the President of WVU) with his friends -- people he knew would be squarely in his corner if he was ever in the consideration for the job. A pure hypothetical, of course.
So how does one get themselves into consideration for such a job? Why, using your rock-solid political connections to get yourself installed as Chairman of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission helps. Why, what a great venue for things like using your influence with the current Governor to get him to appoint your friends to the WVU Board of Governors. And what a great place from which to stack the Search Committee for the Next President of West Virginia University. Or seeing that someone else does it for you.
The Chair of the Search Committee is Charleston lawyer (and WVU Board of Governor's Chair!) Stephen P. Goodwin. Goodwin. Now for those of you who can remember all the way back to Hardesty's installation, that name will be very familiar. Make no mistake here: Garrison has been Steve Goodwin's man all along. And everybody knows that if you really want your man to win, all you have to do is get him into the final against 2 tomato-can opponents. Which is exactly what has happened.
Notice that all along the way, Garrison broke no rules, written or otherwise. He just worked the system to get what he wanted. People do that every day. And now everybody is standing around scratching their heads, wondering "how could this happen!" Please.
Anybody who bothered to pay attention to state government over the past 5 years knew exactly what Garrison was doing. This was hardly a secret. But whenever myself and others would bring it up, people's eyes would usually glaze over like we were talking about the Grassy Knoll or the magic bullet theory or something. Why, how could someone so objectively unqualified to be a university president actually be positioning himself to get that kind of job? And there's no way anyone would ever seriously consider him for the job, anyway.
So in my best Emperor Palpatine voice: You fools. Only now, at the end, do you understand.
Stay tuned for more.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Ballad of Mike Garrison
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23 comments:
First, you should refrain from spreading rumor and gossip because as with the silly "honors" lament it detracts from your credibility.
Why you can't grasp that when you have a good argument it is very unwise to distract from it with weak ones i don't know.
The good argument is that the President of WVU should be someone with an outstanding record of experience and achievement in university administration and that Garrison is lacking in that regard.
WVU should aspire to becoming a better and more well respected institution. Foremost, that requires two things-- more good faculty and more good students wh will elevate the academic performanc.
Installing a political hack as president is counter to that goal. the better faculty and students out there will be discouraged from choosing WVU if it appears the leadership is primarily interested in the political rather than academic side of things.
Also, I love that the Mike Garrison biography notes that he studied at Oxford as a Rotary International Scholar. It doesn't note the he dropped out before Christmas...
Ask anyone in Rotary about this one. They were pissed.
Hippe lover
You have seen way too many Oliver Stone movies. Next your going to say Garrison was on the grassy knoll.
This discussion needs to focus on why WVU should seek out the best candidates for the job rather than conduct a sham search intended from the beginning to hand the job to a politically connected (and thus beholden) person with next to no relevant experience.
I don't fault Garrison for being ambitious. That's the nature of the beast. The fault lies with an elite controlled system that rewards the ambition when the means chosen by the ambitious have little to do with meeting the needs of the position to which he aspires.
Law school rank or honors (or law school at all) are essentially irrelevant. A very strong candidate could possibly have been an average student in law school or any other doctorate program. A very weak candidate could possibly have been a stellar student.
What is important is what the person has done since finishing school. I'd say a succession of political appointments in which one accomplished nothing of much note, followed by a couple of years working for a corporate/governmental affairs law firm where one's primary role was to use the previously made connections to attract business from those who know how to play WV politics is wholly insufficient experience for a President of a major university.
I'd say that even a distinguished career as a political appointee and a lengthy track record as someone excellent in the practice of law is insufficient. One can be a great lawyer or a great engineer, or a great businessman, etc., without being the right choice to be a university president.
There is a lot more to being President than being buddies with the politicians in Charleston. The ability to "work" the politicos is not irrelevant but it should perhaps be the deciding factor in choosing between people with records of achievement in university administration and not the sole criterion for the job.
Hey Hippie,
Just wondering, why all the hate? Did Garrison turn you down for a state job or something? Did he beat you in court case? Or are you just jealous that he drives a nicer car than you?
In case you haven't noticed, the modus operandi here is to whine about everything and everybody. I don't think Garrison is being singled out for the treatment.
People who are unhappy with their lot in life often try to make themselves feel better by being negative about everything and convincing themselves the problem is that everyone else just isn't cool enough to appreciate how cool they are.
Of course,given that some things are bad, every once in a while people who are negative about everything are right, if not for the right reasons.
Garrison is a poor candidate and is considered solely because of politics. There is no need for the silly attacks to make that point, but people here don't know any other way of acting.
Hey Neo-Anon:
Why must you conclude the search was a sham? Nellis and Berstine are entirely credible and legitimate candidates and provide the BoG with a real choice. The company that conducted the search published the call for nominations in all the higher ed journals and other publications where job seekers would look. Perhaps the job doesn't pay enough to attract the high profile academic or business star you seem to prefer. Perhaps the job doesn't have the stature we might presume it does.
I conclude the search was a sham because I think a University of the size and resources of WVU which is also the flagship institution of the State (albeit a small, poor one) could attract a large number of applicants more qualified than any of the three finalists.
I'd be interested in knowing who some of the fols were that did not make the final cut, and surprised if a number of them do not have better credentials.
I start by wondering why 2 of the finalists in a "national search" have WVU backgrounds and the third is the "token black guy."
Perhaps I'm a cynic but that strikes me as telling.
Actually, simply saying "hey' we put an ad in the chronicle of Higher Education" doesn't much impress me. Would not a "real" search involve, at the least, contacting people at the best institutions and asking for recommendations from among their young up and comers or trying to identify the best presidents at schools that are either less prestigious or smaller in size and resources than WVU and approaching them?
I agree that the search is just a facade to to "legitimize" the selection of Garrison and i don't like it one bit. I just don't agree with the petty childishness being employed here to attack him personally.
To further explain my reasons, back in my day we had people like Gene Budig and E. Gordon Gee, both of whom went on to higher profile positions and WVU pays a lot more now both in relative terms and in comparison to similar institutions.
I see no reason other than lack of desire, that we can't attract very strong candidates today. If people cared half as much about the President's job as they do the football and basketball coaches' jobs we wouldn't be seeing this.
Since you brought football and basketball coaches into this, there were people against hiring both Coach Rod and Coach Beilein. These people questioned the judgement of our AD and President in hiring them. Now both coaches are consider by their peers to be among the best in their profession. It just goes to prove no matter how qualified the applicants for a job may be there are always going to be people like our Hippie friend that complain and are against everyone for the sake of hearing their own voice.
We should trust the selection committee to pick the best candidate for the job. Most fans trusted the judgement of Eddie Pastilong with Rich and John despite their lack of experience as the headmen at major institutions and that decision couldnt have turned out better.
Why should I trust the selection committee? Again, maybe i'm a cynic, but it takes more than someone telling me i should trust anyone, let a lone a group of politicians, and God forbid a group of WV politicians. give me some reasons to trust the selection process.
And, actually, Rodriguez was by far the most popular choice for the job and Beilein was just pure luck after we bungled around with others.
If you want to dismiss the criticism of Coach Rod because he was the most popular candidate then shouldnt we also dismiss the criticism of Garrison. It seems to me he is the most popular candidate in this case. I certainly dont hear anyone beating the drums in support of any other candidate named or un-named for the job.
The people beating the drums for Garrison are the BoG and WV politicians.
Hardesty and Garrison are not exactly the same. Hardesty had stronger academic credentials than Garrison. Hardesty went to Harvard and was a Rhodes Scholar.
I doubt that Garrison would even be able to get tenure at WVU.
Uh, no matter what you say about RRod and Belein, at least they BOTH had DONE the job they were hired for, and worked IN that field for their entire careers.
Unlike Garrison who's never done anything beyond teaching a class or two.
Comparing the Garrison situation to the coaching situation, is off base. We hired actual "coaches" to *gasp* COACH. Maybe they hadn't been head coaches of a bigtime D1 school, but they had been head coaches, Belien has never been anything BUT a head coach, at every level.
Garrison hasn't been the president of anything he wasn't "appointed" to by his political buddies.
Hiring Garrison as president of WVU is like hiring Notre Dame's football equipment manager to be your head football coach.
Big difference.
I stand by the "token black guy" label. I'd agree that the token black guy probably has the best credentials of the the 3 finalists, but if you truly believe he has a shot and was not picked just to appease "diversity" advocates, then please contact me about purchasing the Star City Bridge because I can offer you a heck of a deal.
At least he's not a picollo playa!
So is Coach B going to stay? Or are we going to have another high profile search going on at the University?
If so, who should be the top candidates?
His buy-out is still 2.5 million, which is a chunk of change for Michigan or anyone else. Moreover, because he would have to pay income taxes on any money he is given to satisfy the buy-out, he'd need to receive about 3.8 million just to be about even money after paying the buy-out and the federal taxes (with some additional amount for state taxes likely too.)
That's money a school would have to pay before any of the remainder of the compensation package would actually enrich him.
Assuming he'd also like make more money than he does now (say 1.2 million a year?) That would require a school to commit about 10 million dollars to a 5 year deal.
Can he command that much in the market? I suppose it's possible.
as for replacements, if we can't get a "big-name" his former assistant Neubauer who is now coaching EKU might be a good choice.
Garrison's political contacts could be either good or bad for West Virginia University.
If he is able to use his strong connections to get the much larger percentage of the State's higher education budget that WVU deserves (the school has been seriously short changed during the current administration), that is a good thing. Perhaps he can convince Joe Manchin to really do something for WVU instead of just showing up for photo opportunities.
I just typed in WVU + Mike Garrison into Google and this (apparently) dead blog appeared as one of the links. It's very interesting to read this stuff now that it has truly come out what a sham his whole presidency his become due to the Bresch MBA scandal.
This guy is a fake. He is a fat jerk who has taken WVU down a hill that it can never reverse. His mano mano style blew up the athletic program. Got rid of the best football coach WVU ever had in one series of lies. Then he had to take care of his Godfather's daughter and hi shigh school sweetheart and make up courses, grades and papers to give her an unearned eMBA she never earned.
But the chickens are yet to come home to roost. Wait til the Pittsburg papers (WV papers will not touch it for the publisher of those papers is a lady on the WVU board) wait til the Pittsburgh papers get the Manchini and Garrisoon phone records. This will show how dumb and country this guy is.
The dean of medicine has left since Garrison took over. The provost and the dean of business took a dive for Garrison. The Rockefeller Center director was not reappointed since he did not support Garrison. The football coach Rod found that Garrison told him a lie to get him to sign a contract and he left. Garrison is left standing with his Charleston political staff and one or more of them will have to take a fall for Garrison. He gave the BB coach named "DUI" for being fired in two other universities for drinking a ten year $20 million contract to try to get some positive press. What will Garrison do next throw his prom date from high school under the bus? That would be too much for Manchin I think. By the way Heather has been in several controversies for getting special contracts from WV state goverment through her daddie. Did anyone check that out?
Poor Mike he is so good but things turn out so bad. Just bad luck or....could it be incompetence?
Well, Garrison has been hoisted by his own pitar. He's on the way out. For more on the rise and demise of West Virginia's boy king, see academicsatire.com.
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