JACKSON - While my contempt for the ridiculously secretive search process that was skillfully manipulated by Higher Education Commissioner Tom Meredith remains, count me as one Mississippi State University alumnus who believes retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong deserves the full support of all MSU factions as he takes the reins in Starkville.
Foglesong's credentials are impressive. Despite a decided lack of traditional higher education leadership experience, Foglesong's background is that of a winner in all phases of his life.
For Mississippi State alumni to take their frustrations with the secretive search process out on Foglesong would not only be unfair, it would be injurious to the university.
Clearly, General Foglesong's military record entitles him to respect and to an unfettered opportunity to succeed in Starkville. That record, plus his prior teaching experience at the National War College, Montana State University and his West Virginia University alma mater more than qualifies him to lead MSU.
So disgruntled MSU alumni shouldn't make Foglesong the target of one whit of resentment they have over the search process.
It's a simple equation, really. General Foglesong comes to MSU with a reputation for decisive leadership. Unfortunately, he also comes to MSU at a time when the College Board has adopted a new governance model that attempts to install Dr. Meredith as a university system chancellor of sorts.
That new governance model - in which individual university presidents like Foglesong are considered "institutional executive officers" who are subordinate to Meredith and who communicate with the College Board through Meredith - will test General Foglesong's decisive leadership.
There are two schools of thought regarding just how a retired four-star U.S. Air Force general will fit into that model. The first is that he will continue to be a decisive leader and make a great president.
The second school of thought is that if Meredith is indeed seeking a non-threatening "institutional executive officer" at MSU who will not challenge the commissioner's authority, what better choice than a career military man for whom chain-of-command obedience is second nature?
Foglesong's long-term success at MSU will be determined in great measure by whether he is perceived as running State in the mold of a strong president like Dr. Donald Zacharias or whether he is perceived as, in military parlance, an "executive officer" to Meredith's "commanding officer."
Meredith was successful in maintaining the secrecy he desired in the MSU search. He was so successful, in fact, that he fed every conspiracy theorist in the Bulldog Nation enough red meat to convince them sight unseen that Foglesong is an Ole Miss plant rammed down their throats by an IHL commissioner who wants to run MSU in absentia.
The pressure is not on Foglesong, it's on Meredith.
Next comes the presidential search at the University of Southern Mississippi. Meredith's backroom search techniques caught MSU faculty and alumni napping.
At USM, the Faculty Senate and the alumni have watched the MSU drama unfold and they know they're next in the barrel. Meredith will meet with stronger resistance to another secretive search in Hattiesburg.
But in the interim, General Foglesong deserves all the support friends of higher education in Mississippi can give him - particularly from those who bleed Maroon.
One Bulldog jokester summed it up nicely after Foglesong's name was made public: "A general? Oh Lord, they're going to start using the Drill Field again!"
