"What did the president know and when did he know it?"
Seems like some collegiate leaders who grew up during the Watergate era must have taken the entirely wrong message from Senator Howard Baker's famous rhetorical question about President Nixon's knowledge of the Watergate burglary and cover-up. A posture of willful cluelessness, a choice to remain deliberately in the dark about certain facts, characterizes some of the more notorious university leadership failures of recent note. Saying that the leader knew absolutely nothing does not get the president off the hook. Indeed, a defense of ignorance raises even more serious questions about gross negligence, overwhelming self-interest and utter stupidity.
Rutgers President Robert Barchi admits he chose not to pursue key facts about his basketball coach's behavior. Last November, when a video surfaced that shows Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice abusing players at practices, President Barchi chose not to watch the video. Reporters grilled him on this lapse at a press conference this week. According to the New York Times, "When asked why he had not watched the video, he said: 'I can't answer exactly why I didn't. You can only say in retrospect I sure wish I had.'"
He then proceeded to throw his lawyer and athletic director under the bus for failing to fire Coach Rice at the earliest possible moment, imposing lesser disciplinary measures instead. Barchi chose not to watch the video but now holds his subordinates to a higher standard of scrutiny and judgment than his own. Those administrators were fired for choosing the wrong punishment for Coach Rice, but he's simply sorry for not watching the video himself.
Barchi's defense is that Rutgers is a big organization, that he has to rely on his subordinates to do the right thing, that he can't be expected to know all of the details.
I am a college president. I feel his pain when it comes to having to sort through the massive flow of details, trivial and important, that flow through the president's office each day. I certainly know that subordinates push back, muttering the dreaded word "micromanagement" whenever the president asks questions. I also know that it's better to be found guilty of asking too many questions rather than not asking enough.
Have we learned nothing from the tragedy of President Graham Spanier, Coach Joe Paterno and the other protagonists at Penn State?
Have we paid no attention to the leadership failures in another similar venue, the behavior of bishops denying responsibility for the abuse of children in the Catholic Church?
The rules for attentive, responsible collegiate leadership are not all that hard to remember.
First, protecting people --- students, and all others on campus --- is our number one job. Not raising money. Not executing business deals. Not joining the Big Ten. Everything else is subordinate to protecting every person on our campus. If someone is suffering harm on campus, the president must act --- immediately, incisively, and with as much information as he or she can possibly acquire as quickly as possible. Is a video available? Then watch it, for God's sake! We watch all kinds of silly stuff all day online --- why can't we take a few minutes to see the alleged harm unfolding before our eyes? We have particularly large responsibilities to protect students from harm, including bullying and harassment as well as assault and violence. A president's job demands that we step in to protect students whenever we learn of real or potential harm to them.
Second, beware the flocks of lawyers clouding our ability to see what's right. Of course the president must consult with legal counsel. But legal counsel's judgment cannot substitute for the president's leadership. Knowing the legal risks is part of good management, but quite often, especially where people have suffered harm, the president must step up and beyond legal caution to deal directly with the perpetrators and victims of harmful misconduct.
Third, a good reputation for doing the right thing is far more durable than a fake reputation for never having a problem. Colleges and universities are human communities, and human beings have large capacity for sin and misconduct all the time. Any college president who thinks that nothing bad will ever happen on his or her campus should quit immediately. While we work on our risk management practices all the time to try to prevent harm, in fact, good management requires us to be ready to respond to bad acts all the time. And a big part of that response is getting over the idea that nurturing institutional reputation, which is part of the president's job, requires lying, repression of facts, denial of the bad conduct that's part of the human condition.
Fourth, demolish the idols -- every single one of them. No person on campus can be so important as to deflect scrutiny or discipline. No coach, no professor, no dean, no president, no donor or trustee can be kept on such a high pedestal as to defy common sense inquiry into allegations of misconduct. Nobody on campus is above the law, and everybody on campus has a right to expect that the law will be honored.
Fifth, tell the truth, tell it often, tell it again. There is just no substitute for honesty in this business. Lies will be exposed, lives will be ruined and nothing good will come from covering up, holding back, looking the other way.
What did the president know and when did he know it? If the answer is absolutely nothing, then the president cannot lead.