When hundreds of students marched to OU President James Gallogly's office to speak to him about race issues on campus, Gallogly was not there.
The president’s absence followed a week of controversy over racism and budget cuts, and left many questioning Gallogly’s leadership at the university as a result.
Former dean of the College of International Studies Suzette Grillot publicly called for Gallogly’s resignation at the Rally to Stop Racism Jan. 22, and Gallogly struggled to regain control of the rally after the crowd applauded her. On Jan. 23, an unidentified individual walked on the OU campus in blackface and prompted a Better Together March the following day, where students delivered a list of demands regarding racial justice to Evans Hall, only to find Gallogly absent.
Amid the criticism of his administration over the past week, Gallogly told the Chronicle of Higher Education he needed more time to adjust in his position, since he has only been in office for a little more than seven months.
“I’ve been a CEO in the past and haven’t been in the academy,” Gallogly said. “And so I have much to learn. I’ll be the first to say that.”
Gallogly told The Daily he believes the university is having the right conversations and planning the right actions after the incidents, but there is more to do.
“There is no doubt, we have all been challenged by the events of the past week,” Gallogly said. “That makes my resolve greater on behalf of our students, faculty and staff.”
President of the Student Government Association Adran Gibbs said he wants to give Gallogly and the administration a chance to make needed campus changes, and agreed the administration’s efforts should be reevaluated a year from now — something many called for at the Rally to Stop Racism.
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with President Gallogly — just to be really frank about it — but we have to give the administration a chance to work,” Gibbs said. “I think before we start calling for people to resign … we should at least give people who are in positions of authority a chance to correct the culture we have here.”
Eddie R. Cole, assistant professor at the William & Mary School of Education and an expert on college presidents and race, said that questioning a university president’s leadership is not uncommon when they have a failed response to racist incidents.
Although influential donors and alumni may be concerned with the president's leadership in terms of university growth, other campus stakeholders — like students — may measure leadership by campus racial climate, which is what leads to some at college campuses to lose faith in the administration, Cole said.
Paul Bell, dean emeritus of OU's College of Arts and Sciences, has been at OU since 1979, and said the only time he could remember people calling for a president’s resignation was when former interim president David Swank pushed out football head coach Barry Switzer in 1989.
“That was the only time I remember any real public unhappiness with the president, to the point that people might want them to go,” Bell said. “Most of the objection came from football fans, people who liked Barry Switzer … within the university there was overwhelming support for Swank, but that was people outside the university (who disapproved), not inside.”
Professor Emeritus of English Alan Velie has been at OU since 1967 and has seen eight OU presidents during his 52-year tenure, but said he did not remember “anybody publicly speaking, even with an edge in his voice, to any president” and “certainly nothing so dramatic” as Grillot’s call for Gallogly’s resignation.
Velie said the recent racist incidents are similar to what former president David Boren had to deal with during the SAE incident, but that to Velie’s knowledge, none of the faculty blamed Boren in 2015. Velie said he thought the difference between the unity Boren inspired and the criticism Gallogly is now receiving is that Boren did many popular things in the eyes of students, like increasing National Merit scholars and study abroad programs.
“(Boren) had good rapport with students to start with, and he told them he was on their side and they believed him — that’s the way I recall it,” Velie said.
Gallogly did not meet the students when they marched like Boren did with student protestors in 2015, something Cole said is very uncommon for university presidents to do when responding to racist incidents.
“Even if completely unaware of how to handle student protests over racial incidents, being present is the most central move of a good president,” Cole said. “It signals that, at the minimum, students’ grievances are worth your time … I can't imagine many things more pressing unless there was a personal issue that would pull you away from your campus.”
When Gallogly came to office, Velie said faculty were taken aback by Boren’s departure and became suspicious of Gallogly following his firing of vice presidents who were well-known to the faculty, such as former vice president of university development Tripp Hall and former vice president for administration and finance Nick Hathaway.
“I mean, nobody wanted to rush their judgment, but there was a good deal of dismay as of the way (Hall and Hathaway) were fired, so Gallogly didn’t have the goodwill that Boren did,” Velie said.
There are not any specific patterns on how early-term university presidents handle racist incidents, since college presidents actually largely fail in addressing racism at traditionally white campuses regardless of the length of their administration, Cole said.
However, non-traditional presidents like Gallogly who do not come from a background in academics often have narrow views on financial health at a university and are more focused on bottom-lines, Cole said.
“So (Gallogly) was hired for his financial experience in the corporate world, but in higher education, campus racial climate also impacts your budget,” Cole said. “Racism also impacts your bottom line … so failure to truly address institutional racism is asking for a long-term negative impact no university can afford.”
Bell said he would encourage any leader to involve more people in the decision-making process, so that even if people disagree with decisions, they will not necessarily disagree with the process. Right now that process at OU is opaque, which makes people anxious about their jobs and constantly on edge, Bell said.
“OU has a number of other issues … that it ends up becoming this sort of perfect storm,” Cole said. “Administrative issues around your deans and racist incidents and budgetary issues, all of those things add up ... when you start looking at things from all fronts, yeah, those are the sorts of things that lead to a president resigning, if not outright being fired by the board.”
Although corporations are not like universities, Gallogly’s industry experience in leading people should help him maintain effective leadership amid the recent criticism of his administration, Velie said.
“Speaking for myself and I’m assuming a lot of others, I hope that President Gallogly can bring the campus together,” Velie said. “It’s in nobody’s interest for these public spats to go on … but I think everyone wants to see harmony restored.”
