The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that SIUC and SIUE should split and the position of president of SIU eliminated. The two universities have charted different courses for several years now. SIUE pulls in students from the St. Louis metro east area and has seen steady increases in attendance over the past 15 years, with minimal amounts of drama.
SIUC, on the other hand, has seen slight but continual declines in attendance, turmoil at the top, and enough faculty dissatisfaction that both graduate students and faculty formed unions. The skills need to successfully guide SIUC are significantly different. In business terminology, SIUE needs a leader focused on maintaining growth, while SIUC needs a turnaround specialist.
At one time, while SIUE was growing as a spinoff of SIUC, it made sense to have them both operate under the same leadership. Today, much less so.
SIUC, on the other hand, has seen slight but continual declines in attendance, turmoil at the top, and enough faculty dissatisfaction that both graduate students and faculty formed unions. The skills need to successfully guide SIUC are significantly different. In business terminology, SIUE needs a leader focused on maintaining growth, while SIUC needs a turnaround specialist.
At one time, while SIUE was growing as a spinoff of SIUC, it made sense to have them both operate under the same leadership. Today, much less so.
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