I didn't not know that Donald Bobbitt, president of the University of Arkansas System, was a baseball fan.
But now I know he is.
He is a baseball fan at least in the spirit of discerning good strategic "bull pen" management skills.
Bobbitt quietly called down to the UA retirement bull pen and hauled out a crowd favorite, a veteran, relief chancellor this past week.
He called up a well-known name that is indeed a game changer and proven winner to lead the flagship campus as interim chancellor.
That game changer is Daniel Ferritor.
Ferritor, a beloved chancellor of the Fayetteville campus for 11 years (1986-1997), is an old lion of the Fayetteville campus.
Ferritor will smoothly step back into the role of campus leader on Aug. 1, following the retirement of David G. Gearhart.
Gearhart, the current chancellor at the University of Arkansas flagship campus, announced his July 31 retirement shortly after the first of the year. Gearhart, a professional fund-raising executive, is leaving to spend more time with his grandchildren.
With Gearhart's announcement of retirement, there was little talk and a few were wondering who would be the interim chancellor. Only a few began to wonder as whoever would be chosen, would that individual be just a "seat warmer," a "gatekeeper," so to speak, for the next incoming chancellor.
Last week, Bobbitt, President and CEO of the governing body over all the University of Arkansas affiliated campuses, quietly and quickly released a statement that Ferritor was his choice to lead the state's largest academic campus in the interim.
That move was indeed a game changer. A home run of sorts. The kind of deft move that we have hoped to see from Bobbitt as the UA Systems president.
Ferritor is indeed more than a seat warmer or gatekeeper. He is a beloved administrator, community leader; an individual unafraid to roll up his sleeves for the benefit of Arkansas.
Selecting Ferritor was a move similar in baseball to calling up a veteran switch-hitter or sure-fire left-handed hurler in the sixth or seventh inning of a close baseball game that is still undecided. Suddenly the team and the hometown fans see a really good chance to rally. Things are better than they seemed.
And in academics, just as in baseball, making the right call from the dugout means everything.
The selection of Ferritor sends a solid signal of stability and leadership. That signal has been sent not only to the campus, its faculty and staff, the city of Fayetteville, the Northwest Arkansas' business and academic community, but to the entire state of Arkansas.
Ferritor, 75, is in good health. He is a quiet, deliberate man whose kindness and humility are legendary in all that he has done.
Ferritor is also a man who can make a decision in the best interest of the campus and those affected. He is also unafraid to make the hard and necessary decisions a chancellor needs to make.
Ferritor tried retirement from the Chancellor's office by going to the classroom (he is a sociology professor). He then wandered back to administration, doing special projects for the Systems Office. Ferritor is also a tireless community worker.
And best of all, Ferritor knows the media and the media knows him.
His quote in the newspapers, about being offered the job, is, pure Dan Ferritor.
"You can't pass up an opportunity to be able to work with the university," Ferritor said last week. "This is plum stuff. These are good people. I can't overemphasize that."
Well, I can't overemphasize that Dan Ferritor is the right choice for the interim chancellor's position.
The campus, Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas and the state welcome him back to the pitcher's mound on the flagship campus.
MAYLON RICE, AN AWARD-WINNING COLUMNIST, HAS WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS AND HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
Editorial on 04/15/2015