David Borofsky is a bygone, and I get the feeling most of the staff at Dakota State University are relieved to let this bygone be bygone. But for the record:
DSU's last president can finally update his LinkedIn profile... and give his parka to Goodwill. Hodges University of Naples and Fort Myers, Florida, today named Borofksy as its interim president. Borofsky will take the reins from Dr. Jeanette Brock, who has presided over Hodges since 2013 but who has been in Hodges administration for 20 of the school's 24-year existence.
Borofsky resigned suddenly from Dakota State last August, following staff and student unrest over unpopular staffing decisions. Hodges University's press touts Borofsky's fundraising success:
Borofsky was particularly attractive to the trustees because of his experience with fundraising at Dakota State University, where he most recently served. There he secured $7 million to help fund a campus expansion; donations of $5 million and $2 million were the two largest contributions in the university’s history, Hodges’ statement said [Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, "Interim President Named for Hodges University," Naples (FL) Daily News, 2014.12.01].
Private, non-profit Hodges offers seven master's degrees, eighteen bachelor's degrees, and thirteen associate degrees, all in biz/health/techy fields. Hodges claims over 2,500 enrolled students, 95 full-time faculty, and 69 part-time/adjunct faculty. U.S. News does not rank the school. In fall 2013, Dakota State had over 3,100 enrolled students and 100 faculty.
when I heard/read the news about the new interim President at Hodges University I wondered who they had talked to. I checked in with many of my peers and none had been contacted. I wonder if they did a Google on the situation and caught the stories in the Argus or the editorial or letter to the editor in the Daily Leader? I guess we all just believe what we want to believe.
Have the staffing changes been reversed?
Money. When I went to school at Dakota State I think it was $15.50 a credit hour. That was not a 150 years ago either, so what has happened to the cost of tuition? Why is it so much higher? It's not a business but it does have to pencil out, so changes have to be made. Were his changes mostly related to monetary pressures? A person might assume he was hired by the regents to do some things they knew would be unpopular and not be blamed knowing his stay would be temporary. He referred to himself as a change agent (as a change agent for them or his own vision)? Have the regents maintained his changes besides just staffing which Steve refers?
Everything he put in place still stands...or teeters, however you look at it. We had a cost discussion in class this morning. Were you there John? I told them that during the 3.5 years of my undergraduate years that tuition rose from $11 per credit hour to $14. Of course my first salary was $750 a month...yep $9,000 a year.
Good old days? not so sure.
As far as the BOR giving him the marching orders to make changes I find that hard to believe. I think it was him leaving his mark. The students finally called his bluff.
Using an inflation calculator something that cost $15.50 in 1982 (the year I went to school here) should cost $38.14 today, so something drastic has happened to what students must pay. What has driven up the cost exponentially. Nobody likes to talk about cost containment but this thing has gone off the rails some sort of way that really needs an explanation using hard numbers to show why and where the inputs have changed. The debt from school loans cannot be dismissed through bankruptcy.
Wayne, I've always operated under the assumption that nothing big happened on campuses that wasn't Regental marching orders. Can campus presidents do anything significant that Regents either don't notice or don't approve?
Cory, I really believe in this situation that Borofsky authored all the personnel changes ( more than 2 dozen over 2 years), and would still be doing his "change agent" things had the students not called him on his June changes in BIS. I questioned a Regent and he told me that it was Borofsky, not Borofsky following orders that made the changes. We will probably never know for sure.
Wow. I must underestimate university presidents' autonomy.