New University President Announcement Open Thread EDIT: It's Dr. Mark Schlissel, Provost at Brown

Submitted by James Burrill Angell on

It's official, the University is holding a press conference now at 10am to announce the name of the new (and only 14th) President of the University of Michigan.

LINK:http://www.freep.com/article/20140124/NEWS06/301240048/U-M-to-name-new-president

LINK #2: http://www.michigandaily.com/blog/wire/regents-have-special-meeting-friday-morning

 Supposedly the Michigan Daily may Liveblog it (not kidding). WIll post link if they do.I just wonder if they'll do the whole picking hats and putting the winner on their head thing.

EDIT: Better than a Liveblog, the University is posting a live broadcast of the news conference here: http://umich.edu/watch/

 EDIT #2: Its Dr. Mark Schlissel, the current provost at Brown and former Dean of biochem at Cal-Berkeley. Here's the pic & bio: http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Provost/people/about_schlissel.html

EDIT #3 - NO YOU DO NOT REMEMBER HIM FROM HIS ROLE IN "THE HOBBIT"

MGoBoard

Naked Bootlegger

January 24th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^

Not gonna disagree with you on that one.   There is still a palpable, overt coastal bias, though, for a large mass of the U.S. population.   When I moved to back to the Midwest (Madison, WI - a completely pleasant smallish college city) from the East Coast, I was greeted with an overwhelming collective "WTF are you doing!" reaction from most East Coasters.   Weather played a role in their reaction, but there was also a strong undercurrent that nothing meaningful happens in the Midwest.  

So here's to Dr. Schlissel and continued meaningful things happening in Ann Arbor during his hopefully fruitful tenure for many years ahead!

Joined: 01/28/2011

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bronxblue

January 25th, 2014 at 9:33 AM ^

New York has more than enough pretty people, and culturally feels like a step above any other city in the country.  And I'm by no means a fan of NYC; I've been looking to leave since the day I arrived.  

And if you go out of any major city 15-20 miles, you'll find a wealth of outdoor options.  I've been to SF and LA, and while both have their charms, the august majesty people speak of takes some driving unless you are right on the coast.

Joined: 11/22/2008

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MGoUberBlue

January 24th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^

That the new president is a man of high intellectual and academic character with an administrative track record at a great university.

No information about how he fits with supporting the athletic aspect.

Also, the University Hospital is such a key to the repution of UM.

Joined: 06/06/2011

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Cold War

January 24th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^

1) How will he approach athletics?

2) How important is the President to athletics?

3) Answer those two and then you can go back to all that other stuff.

 

Joined: 01/15/2012

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gwkrlghl

January 24th, 2014 at 2:09 PM ^

Yeah he annoys people and doesn't always adhere to the strictest of MICHIGAN MAN TRADITIONS but he makes the AD a boatload of cash and has overseen some great hires in his time (Nuss, KBA, Bakich) and has generally improved and grown the department. Yeah, he also oversaw the bumblebee uniforms but at least he wasn't out on a freakin sailboat while we searched for an OC. He's a pretty great AD in my opinion

Joined: 04/13/2012

MGoPoints: 72

WolverineMac

January 24th, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^

And a few other misguided sheep want that. He is doing tremendous things for all sports at Michigan and people bitch because he's doing it in a way that uses business methods instead of the old saying were Michigan and hoping things come into place. I haven't liked everything either but he's trying and getting results.

Do you want the sailboat jockey back or just this perfectly crafted person who will ask your opinion every time he does something.

Joined: 02/14/2010

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Wolverine In Exile

January 24th, 2014 at 7:45 PM ^

Overall a respectable choice but I'm worried about a couple issues: - his comments on diversity when asked at the press conference echoed long standing u talking points.. Essentially diversity is demographic composition "the univ should LOOK like its surrounding community" (emphasis mine). I was hoping after prop 6 and the multiple supreme court rulings the new president wouldn't take such an orthodox view but with this board of regents, MSC's precedent, and his background I shouldn't have been surprised. - I'm worried with his biosci background even more emphasis is going to be put on biosciences. Biosci is doing fine... Its the other engineering disciplines and LSA humanities & hard sciences that need the advocate. - no major athletics experience is troubling to me. While we pride ourselves on out academic excellence we want a big time athletics dept. - his wife is pretty far on the left when it comes to legal manipulation on the part of environmental issues, especially climate change debate. Michigan is already on the side of suppression of honest climate debate within aoss so I'm guessing that trend will continue. I think my general feeling is that he's a hire that will appeal to more "progressive" pocketsbof the school. If he's an able administrator and manages to do something about tuition then he'll be fine but I have a sneaking suspicion we are in for a politically controversial presidency. Just my two cents.

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