Mote dealt well with senate

As the university faced an array of issues from prayers to rioting and everything in between over the last decade, it benefited from strong cooperation between its leader and its top advisory body — a relationship senators hope the next president will retain.

As university President Dan Mote prepares to step down Aug. 31, he and members of the University Senate reflected on their lack of division throughout his presidency.

"I would give [my relationship with the senate] an A+, actually, because what it has allowed us to do is concentrate on what we want to do together rather than spending a lot of time in conflict on what we're trying to do," Mote said. "So it's minimized the conflict and maximized what we can do together."

When Mote assumed the presidency 12 years ago — arriving from the University of California at Berkeley, where he served as vice chancellor for university relations — one of his challenges was adjusting to the senate's structure, according to Marvin Breslow, a senate parliamentarian and emeritus professor who has been involved in the senate for more than 45 years.

Breslow, who was senate chair and served on the committee that recommended Mote for his position here in 1998, said that while this university's senate represents all members of the university community, Berkeley's covered only faculty.

"Particularly when someone comes from the outside, there's a little bit of both the senate and the president learning about each other," Breslow said. "It's been a very good relationship in many ways. I think when he first came he was a little unsure of what kind of senate this was because it was a somewhat different version of Berkeley's senate. He seeks the advice of the Senate Executive Committee for everything, and I think it's worked pretty well."

Mote said he was originally "a bit surprised" by this university's unique take on shared governance but was soon won over by the system here.

"I really wondered how it was going to work and whether it could work," Mote said. "It didn't take too long before I realized that this was actually a much better design than what I came from."

The senate is the university's highest advisory board; it makes recommendations to the president on university issues. Mote has had breakfast meetings every other week with the senate's highest committee — the Senate Executive Committee — in order to get their thoughts on policies and happenings.

Under Mote, a vote of approval by the senate has almost always been a guarantee it will be made into official university policy — a rule broken by just one exception during his tenure.

"That's pretty remarkable for a 12-year period," Mote said.

But Breslow and other senators said this division shouldn't diminish the numerous policies Mote signed under the advisement of the senate.

"That's a pretty good record. Of the hundreds of things that have come through, I wouldn't make too much out of one," Breslow said, noting that the senate and the president are able to work out disagreements before full senate votes but that the prayer ruling was made too close to last year's graduation to renegotiate.

"We seldom get to the position where the president needs to disagree publicly," Breslow said.

Other senate officials said Mote's appreciation for senate input has left a heightened expectation that the next president should similarly value shared governance.

"If a new president were to join us only to act unilaterally, he or she would not be successful here. We (the faculty, staff and students) of this university have grown to expect to be a part of building our future," wrote Elise Miller-Hooks, former chair of the senate who serves on the Presidential Search Committee, in an e-mail. "I am very hopeful that the Senate's relationship with the next university president will be as good as we have with President Mote today."

Linda Mabbs, who officially became chair of the senate yesterday, said she trusts that the search committee will find a successor to Mote who values a senate relationship.

"I've asked the search committee to be certain to ask questions about openness and transparency and working with shared governance," Mabbs said.

As the senate chair during the transition period between Mote and the next president, Mabbs' role will be to help acclimate that person to the senate. How she accomplishes this will depend on who is selected, and she said she doesn't anticipate major stumbling blocks.

"We'll wait to see what kind of candidate we will have and see from there," she said. "I'm hoping the governance will continue the way it is. We have a long tradition, and this campus is admired for that tradition. I expect that to continue without a problem. "

Mote said he would encourage the next president to develop a strong working relationship with the senate.

"I think the process of working closely with the executive committee of the senate makes sense," he said. "I really don't see anything wrong with the current mechanisms we have for working with the senate. If I were going to start over again, I would do exactly the same thing, except I would have appreciated it more from the start."

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