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Elwood Gordon Gee (born February 2, 1944) is an American academic. He is the current chancellor of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, as well as a professor of law at the university's law school.
He has held more university presidencies than any other American. Prior to his appointment as Vanderbilt's chancellor on February 7, 2000, Gee was president of Brown University from 1998 to 2000, The Ohio State University from 1990 to 1998, the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1985 to 1990 and West Virginia University from 1981 to 1985.
Gee was born and grew up in Vernal, Utah, 171 miles (275 km) southeast of Salt Lake City, to an oil company employee and a school teacher, both Mormon. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1968 with a bachelor of arts degree in history. After earning doctorates in law and education from Columbia University in 1971 and 1972, respectively, specializing in education law, Gee clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger for one year.
Gee is married to the former Constance Bumgarner, an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education at Peabody College, a part of Vanderbilt University. He was previously married to the late Elizabeth Gee, with whom he had one daughter, Rebekah.
Gee sits on the Board of Directors of Massey Energy, where he is a member of the Public and Environmental Policy Committee. Massey Energy practices a form of surface mining, Mountaintop Removal, which uses explosives to destroy mountains to gain access to thin layers of coal. Gee has been targeted by environmental groups and asked to influence Massey's environmental practices, or step down from his position.
Early career
After clerking for Justice Burger, Gee accepted a position as professor and associate dean at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He became dean and professor at West Virginia University's law school in 1979 and the University's president two years later. At 37, he was one of the youngest chief executives in academia at the time.
After successful administrations at WVU, Gee moved to the University of Colorado and The Ohio State University. It was at Ohio State that Gee met and married Bumgarner. He became president of Brown University in 1998.
Brown tenure
Gee's presidency at Brown, which he held for only two years, was mired in controversy. According to the Village Voice and the College Hill Independent, one of the university's campus newspapers, Gee received much criticism from students and faculty for treating the school as a Wall Street corporation rather than an Ivy League university.
Critics specifically pointed to his decisions to sign off on an ambitious brain science program without consulting the faculty, to sell $80 million in bonds for the construction of a biomedical sciences building and to cut the university's extremely popular Charleston String Quartet, which many saw as part of a pattern of Gee of leading the school away from its close but unprofitable relationship with the arts. Gee and his wife were also blamed for an extravagant renovation of the president's residence, which reportedly cost several million dollars. Constance Gee, who was given a teaching position at Brown, was also bashed by the students for her poor teaching ability (as indicated by the students' biannual survey of faculty and courses, The Critical Review). She was eventually reassigned to a non-teaching research position.
Gee left under a storm of criticism in 2000, as members of the Brown community widely accused him of departing the school after an uncommonly short tenure because of Vanderbilt University's offer of a corporate-level salary and a tenured teaching position for his wife. Indeed, according to a 2003 article by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Gee was the second highest paid university chief executive in the country with a purported total compensation package of greater than $1.3 million.
Vanderbilt tenure
In contrast to his tumultuous time at Brown, Gee has had a much calmer tenure at Vanderbilt. Almost from his arrival, he has generally been well-liked by students and faculty alike. Gee has consistently held uncommonly high student approval ratings. In 2005, when Gee's approval saw a comparatively sharp drop, it still stood at 88.4%.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, a student satirical publication at Vanderbilt, The Slant, ran a complete mock-up of the Vanderbilt Hustler, entitled the Vanderbilt Huslter, with the headline GEE DEAD. The hoax received some attention from national media, including an appearance on the Drudge Report. Gee's office responded to the hoax by releasing a photo of him holding a copy of the Huslter (with Gee smiling). Despite Gee's good humor about the prank, the ensuing controversy led to the removal of The Slant's sophomore editor-in-chief David Barzelay from his post. Gee discussed the hoax in his 2003 commencement speech.
In September 2003, Gee made national headlines when he eliminated the organized athletic department at Vanderbilt and consolidated its activities under the Division of Student Life, the university's general administrative division for student organizations and activities. Many in the college athletics community found this radical change to the status quo alarming and dismissed the move as desperation on the part of Gee to fix a financially-ailing athletic department. Furthermore, many saw this as the beginning of a process of de-emphasizing athletics at Vanderbilt, possibly culminating in the withdrawal from the Southeastern Conference. However, Gee's action had its supporters, including NCAA President Myles Brand. Futhermore, a stellar spring for Vanderbilt athletic teams and a top-30 finish in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Director's Cup ranking of college athletic programs for the 2003–04 academic year ultimately vindicated Vanderbilt and Gee.
Notes and References
- E. Gordon Gee: Introducing the seventeenth president by Norman Boucher, Brown Alumni Magazine, September/October 1997. Accessed October 12, 2004.
- Premature Evacuation: Why Did Gordon Gee Abandon Brown? by Blake A. Zeff, The Village Voice, August 2, 2000. Retrieved October 29, 2005
- Closing In on $1-Million by Julianne Basinger, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 2003. Retrieved August 2, 2005.
- Gee's approval rating near 90 percent by Megan Ceryanec, The Vanderbilt Hustler, March 23, 2005. Retrieved July 23, 2005.
- Slant hoax ends in apologies by Meredith Berger, The Vanderbilt Hustler, March 14, 2003. Retrieved December 05, 2005.
- Strike up the Vandy! by David Vecsey, sportsillustrated.com, September 12, 2003. Retrieved October 29, 2005.
External link
1944 births | Living people | Brown University | Brown University presidents | Vanderbilt University | Ohio State University presidents
"Gordon Gee"