COLUMBIA Mo.
As the search for a new University
of Missouri president forges ahead,
some high-ranking academic leaders aren’t waiting around to meet the new boss.
Since mid-June, three top university officials have decided
to take jobs elsewhere. The first to leave was economic development guru John
Gardner, who quickly followed former Missouri
system president Elson Floyd to Washington
State University.
Next came Jim Coleman, a vice chancellor for research at the
Columbia campus. Coleman departs in
September for a job as vice provost of research at Rice
University, a Houston
private school with one of the largest endowments in the country.
And just last week, Steve Lehmkuhle another former Floyd
lieutenant was named as the first chancellor at the University
of Minnesota-Rochester. Lehmkuhle
spent more than two decades in the Missouri
system, including a stint in 2005 as interim chancellor of the Kansas
City campus.
The succession of abrupt departures is largely coincidental.
But some keen observers of higher education in the state are also wondering if
the brain drain, coupled with the prolonged presidential search, could create a
leadership vacuum in University Hall.
“These are people who are really synonymous with MU’s
success in the past decade,” said Kelly Gillespie, executive director of
the Missouri Biotechnology Association. “It is an opportunity but how long
do you want that window open?”
