Mike Boettcher, a distinguished veteran news correspondent and OU journalism professor, spoke to a small group of OU community members Tuesday in the first of his interview sessions to be Gaylord College’s next dean, confirming he does not have a bachelor’s degree while making his case as an established leader in the field.
Boettcher also outlined his vision for the college, which included creating bureaus in Los Angeles and New York, expanding AI research, collaborating with rural Oklahoma newsrooms and bringing Gaylord College to a national scale.
OU Daily first reported early Monday morning — after unsuccessfully attempting to reach Boettcher multiple times over the weekend — that he had previously told a colleague and student he does not have a degree.
“I am the least educated of all the candidates. I do not have a degree, I’m 14 hours short,” Boettcher said. “My career got ahead of my education. It's my greatest regret, and I talk to students about this. Don't follow what I did.”
Boettcher said, though he doesn’t have a degree, not many journalists could match his professional credentials. Despite not having the same academic achievements as other candidates, Boettcher said he has gained leadership abilities through his work as a foreign correspondent.
“You don't become a leader with a degree or an advanced degree,” Boettcher said in response to a follow-up question from a Daily reporter regarding the incongruence he’d face as dean in leading a college despite not graduating from one. “If you've ever become a leader, it's something that develops over time. … I'm just going to be up front in my answer, (which) is you don't need a degree to be a leader.”
In, at times passionate, remarks on the power of journalism Tuesday and the necessity of reporters holding those in power to account, Boettcher said he was instructed not to respond to inquiries from the media out of respect for the other candidates, whose names weren’t released to Gaylord faculty and staff until around 9 p.m. Sunday, revealed in the Daily’s report a few hours later and shared with the broader community Monday afternoon.
“I'm not going to be muzzled, but I do respect the chain of command and in the newsroom, you respect the chain of command,” Boettcher said. “And if it comes at the cost of your own beliefs, and that's when you leave. This didn't rise to the level of going against the grain of my belief structure. It was part of the process to select the dean and out of respect for the other four (candidates).”
Boettcher said he would prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion efforts as he believes that’s what the industry demands. In December, Gov. Kevin Stitt ordered a review of DEI programs and banned state funds and resources from going toward such programs.
In February, OU renamed the former DEI office to the Division of Access and Opportunity.
“I’m not afraid to call it what it is, and saying that, I know that could pretty much end me here in Oklahoma, but I’m not afraid,” Boettcher said. “Aren’t those values we want our students leaving here with? If it’s not, what are we doing here?”
Boettcher seeks to increase recruiting efforts both in-state and nationally to further diversity in Gaylord College.
“I need to go out and recruit the best and the brightest from the neighborhoods no else is going to, to the high schools no one gives a damn about,” Boettcher said. “I give a damn about that, and that’s how you diversify a campus.”
Boettcher said Gaylord’s funding was an issue he would address in his deanship, noting his experience with fundraising and vast international connections. Boettcher said he sat on the board of directors of Easterseals, a nonprofit organization providing disability services and support to veterans, military families, seniors and caregivers. He was appointed to the board in October 2013.
Boettcher’s duties include visiting major corporations across the country, raising millions for Easterseals, he said. He serves on the development and marketing committee for the organization.
“We’re at a critical juncture in the history of this college,” Boettcher said. “Research is all about money, and that’s one thing I know. I can raise money, and I’ve done it at a high level. I’ve done it here, but I’ve done it at a level that was frankly international.”
Boettcher said he has a good standing relationship with Bob Ross, president and CEO of the Inasmuch Foundation, who also sits on the OU Board of Regents.
“I have a very good relationship with Bob Ross and the Inasmuch Foundation,” Boettcher said.
The Inasmuch Foundation, which is a major benefactor of Gaylord College, was established by Edith Kinney Gaylord in 1982. The Gaylord family and foundation later donated to the university to establish Gaylord College as a degree-granting institution in 2001. Inasmuch Foundation has awarded Gaylord College 43 grants totaling over $13 million from 2003, as of spring 2021. Included in this, according to a Gaylord College Alumni Association newsletter, is the funding for the construction of both phases of Gaylord Hall and several programs within the college, such as the Gaylord in Washington program, which Boettcher helped create in 2018, the Oklahoma Institute for Diversity in Journalism and the Oklahoma Scholastic Media Initiative.
Senior program officer at the Inasmuch Foundation Tyler Tokarczyk sits on the search committee for Gaylord College dean.
Boettcher said he is good at building relationships and credits his time as a journalist for teaching him how to build trust.
Monday marked the start of a three-day interview process for Boettcher as one of five finalists for Gaylord College’s dean position, according to interview schedules obtained and further reporting by OU Daily over the weekend.
The second candidate, Texas Tech University professor and former dean of its journalism college David Perlmutter, will be on campus on Wednesday through Friday. The third candidate, Kent State University’s School of Media and Journalism director Emily Metzgar, will interview on March 10-12. The fourth candidate, dean of Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas Andrea Miller, will be on campus from March 11-13, and the fifth candidate, chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Utah Avery Holton, will be on campus after spring break on March 24-26.
All candidates, except for Boettcher, hold a doctorate.
Ahead of his 70th birthday, Ed Kelley announced in March 2023 he would be stepping down from his role as dean, saying Gaylord College deserved younger leadership.
“Should Gaylord College — an institution devoted to serving the needs of a constantly changing, 24/7 media environment that soon will be dominated by Generation Z — be overseen by a white-haired dean who is 70 years old? I think not,” Kelley wrote in the letter announcing his departure from the university.
Boettcher, who is 69, attended OU around the same time as Kelley. On Tuesday, Boettcher acknowledged his age, along with his identity as a white male. Boettcher said if the search committee and university administration feel it's time for a younger generation, they should hire someone who fits that description.
Boettcher said he does not need time to learn about OU or Gaylord College, so his transition time — amid a rapidly evolving time in the media landscape — would be quicker than an outside candidate. His age will help his transition as he’s been at OU, which he joined officially as a visiting professor in 2009. Boettcher said he thinks his age is not a detriment to teaching Generation Z, which are those born between 1997 and 2012.
“Maybe this is the time for a change,” Boettcher said. “You folks need to decide, folks in Evans Hall need to decide that this is it. I just know, I feel in my heart that we need some more time on the transition.”
Mike Boettcher during the public forum and Q&A on March 5.
Boettcher presented his two-pronged vision for Gaylord College to expand its national and statewide presence. He aims to find ways for students to help struggling rural and local media, seeing the failure of small-town papers as a contributing factor to extremism.
Statewide, Boettcher wants to help ease news deserts — communities with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information — by organizing students to provide writing, editing, sales and digital design support. Boettcher said he hopes to reestablish the state capital reporting bureau at Gaylord College.
“We need to assist people in those information deserts in Oklahoma into being able to keep their newspapers alive or establish good journalism in small-town America,” Boettcher said. “We do that by utilizing all of our different disciplines here besides Gaylord News.”
Ralph Sewell, former OU professor and OU Daily alum, created a legislative reporting class where students covered the Oklahoma Legislature for newspapers across the state.
On a national level, Boettcher aims to establish reporting bureaus in several news capitals. He would start with Los Angeles, allowing opportunities for news reporting and filmmaking, later branching into New York City and possibly Atlanta.
Boettcher said he wants Gaylord College to be known on both a national and international level. He said many students leave the college after graduation successful and more prepared to enter media professions than other college graduates, and he wants to tell that story.
According to Boettcher’s OU faculty page, he helped launch the era of 24-hour live news coverage for CNN in 1980. While working as a multimedia journalist, Boettcher investigated terrorist groups across the world, winning a Peabody, six Emmys and a National Headliner award as chief of CNN’s terrorism investigation unit.
Boettcher went on to cover world conflict for NBC News and CNN, investigating and becoming a victim of terrorism while working in El Salvador, Baghdad and Lebanon. He worked extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan, covering Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Desert Storm and the Kurdish refugee crisis. He would later work for ABC News.
Boettcher said he loves the students at Gaylord College and wants to give them every opportunity possible.
Boettcher opened his public forum with a story about his time in Iraq when his reporting of a torture chamber for NBC News led a terrorist organization to set off several bombs near a hotel compound that house several news organizations, including his team. He said, while reporting there, his team had grown close to local children, some of which died as a result of the bombs.
Boettcher said that moment changed his thinking, saying before that time he was selfish and has since changed his thinking to focus on younger generations and their successes.
“I love this building, I love the students,” Boettcher said. “I want to give this generation that’s alive every chance they can have to be successful, and that’s why I feel that I poured my heart and soul into this building for 14 years.”
Boettcher will meet with Gaylord students at 4 p.m. Tuesday after he meets with OU’s Norman campus deans and Gaylord faculty and staff. On Wednesday, he will meet with the Gaylord Board of Visitors, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. and Senior Vice President and Provost for OU André-Denis Wright.
The candidates for dean of Gaylord College. From left to right; Mike Boettcher, veteran network news correspondent and OU journalism professor; Texas Tech University professor and former dean of its journalism college David Perlmutter; Kent State University’s School of Media and Journalism director Emily Metzgar; University of North Texas Dean of the Mayborn School of Journalism Andrea Miller; and Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Utah Avery Holton.
Gaylord College dean search
Wright told OU Daily in September that once the search committee made its selection of finalists, those would be made public. Some faculty and staff were notified Boettcher was a candidate and would undergo his three-day interview process on Friday afternoon, according to an interview schedule and email obtained by OU Daily that day.
At the time the dean candidate qualifications and requirements were announced, many faculty and staff questioned the composition of the search committee approved by the OU Board of Regents in September.
The search committee, chaired by Phelps, includes Gaylord College professor Robert Kerr, professor Doyle Yoon, professor Erin Kökdil, professor Jensen Moore, senior academic adviser Joshua Kahoe, Director of Student Services Kathy Sawyer and Gaylord Board of Visitors member Roger Frizzell.
Two students within the college, graduate student Alex Eschbach and public relations senior Acacia McDonald, are on the committee. Outside of the college, professor in the Department of Communication John Banas, classics and letters professor Daniela Garofalo, executive director of advancement for the OU Foundation Emily Reed and Tokarczyk at Inasmuch also joined the committee.
The next candidate, Perlmutter, will have a public forum and Q&A at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the Edith Kinney Gaylord Library in Gaylord Hall. He will have a meet and greet at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Inasmuch Commons in Gaylord Hall.
Read more about the dean search:
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele.
