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Donna E. Shalala named University’s fifth president Perhaps it was a premonition, a glimpse of the very near future. Two years ago, when U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala met with a group of University of Miami faculty and students working to improve housing, services, and job opportunities in Miami’s East Little Havana, she called their efforts "the wave of the future." Shalala, who previously served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison before accepting a post in the Clinton Administration, said the one thing she missed in government service was contact with students. She said it was the University of Miami’s location and world-class facilities that convinced her to take the job here. "The multiethnic nature of this vibrant community–the fact that it represents the world and looks out on Latin America and the Caribbean–and the fact the medical and marine science schools are world-class attracted me to this University," said Shalala. The University’s liberal arts and its schools of law, nursing, and business administration also lured her. Shalala’s appointment ends a nine-month national search by a 15-member presidential search committee. Some of the nation’s leading university presidents, provosts, and other officials indicated an interest in the position, according to Charles E. Cobb, Jr., who chaired the search committee. "We were looking for people to nominate candidates, not for candidates to apply," said Cobb. "The very best people almost never apply." So the search committee hired the national executive search firm of Korn/Ferry International to help in the process. Some 2,000 to 3,000 University alumni around the world received a detailed letter outlining the criteria for a new president and asking for their nominations. The nomination form also was posted on the University’s Presidential Search Web site. Soon, the University had more than 100 applicants, and with help from Korn/Ferry, the search team narrowed the list to a few top candidates. Cobb, a former UM Board of Trustees chair, said Shalala was a unanimous choice of not only the search committee, but of the Board of Trustees as well as a Consultative Committee of deans and faculty members.
Shalala’s appointment is also something of a coup for UM. She reportedly had several attractive offers from other universities as well as many private sector opportunities. "You see here someone who has been captured by world-class recruiters," said Shalala. "I now understand why the University of Miami football team is so good. You know how to recruit. I bargained very hard, but in the end they caught me. There are some very unhappy headhunters out there." At her introductory press conference attended by a throng of media, faculty members, students, and University officials, Shalala wasted no time in identifying what her main concern will be when she assumes her new post: students. "Not just the quick, articulate ones but the quiet, shy ones, too," she said. "If someone asked me right now why is it that I’m coming to the University of Miami, my answer would be because they have the best, most energetic, most terrific students in the country," said Shalala. Cobb, a former ambassador to Iceland, said Shalala’s candidacy for the UM post was supported by leading political figures on both sides of the aisle in Washington, D.C., and Tallahassee. "We thought it absolutely imperative that the president of the University of Miami not be seen as partisan one way or the other," said Cobb, adding that the search committee checked out Shalala with several U.S. senators and governors who included George W. Bush only a week before the election. "We got a unanimous view that Donna Shalala does not play politics," Cobb said. "She deals in substance, and she deals very, very effectively with people on both sides of the aisle." "Donna Shalala is a compelling leader who not only has a reputation of being able to get things done, but has the capacity of working with people of diverse points of view," said Board of Trustees Chair Carlos M. de la Cruz, Sr. "She is a seasoned chief executive with outstanding credentials in both academia and government. I am certain that Dr. Shalala will lead the University of Miami forward and fully expect that she will quickly make a tremendous imprint not only on our institution but the entire South Florida community." During Shalala’s press conference, a broadcast news reporter asked the new president if she had any message for the community on how it felt to be a female president of a major research university. "There are other female presidents of this area, including Sister Jeanne," said Shalala, referring to her friend and Barry University President Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin. "I think ready or not, here we come." |
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But
little did anyone realize at the time that Shalala, one of the highest
ranking women in the federal government and an influential academician,
would one day become the leader of UM’s future.
After
the search committee’s unanimous vote, negotiations got underway
to convince Shalala to accept the post, according to Cobb. "We
had a tough sell," he said, "but we were so delighted that
we could convince her that this University was the best of her many
opportunities for the next step of her career."
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