http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/McRaven-commander-in-Bin-Laden-raid-to-be-UT-5655509.php
Let’s Hope
McRaven=McNevermore
By
Leonard Zwelling
Now we know.
When the UT Chancellor’s job is open, be aware of who gives
the commencement address.
http://www.chron.com/default/article/New-UT-leadership-5655261.php
The Chronicle’s headline today announced the naming of the
only finalist (is getting a top job at UT like having the World Series with
only one team?) for the Chancellor’s position, Admiral William H. McRaven, a
native Texan, a UT grad and the architect of the raid that killed Osama bin
Laden.
Now I have no idea how good a choice this is. He seems like
a very accomplished man. He is well-spoken and obviously a superior leader of
men. Whether any of that qualifies him to lead UT will remain to be seen once
he takes the job at year’s end. (Dr. Cigarroa will stay in his current role
until then).
I believe that the only prudent response to this appointment
given we have no idea who else was in the running for we rarely do, is watchful
waiting and a lot of praying.
However, let’s look on the bright side of life, shall we?
He’s a military guy who knows how to take out bad guys.
That’s a plus.
He’s from UT so he probably feels great loyalty to the UT
System and will make decisions with his heart in the right place. That’s a
plus, too.
But what really gives me hope is a very short phrase in his
commencement address that was reprinted in the Chronicle. After he mentions that “life is not fair”
(there’s that 4 letter F word again) and that failure is part of life (see
recent post on this blog of that name) he says, “step up when the times are
toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, give up.”
I
couldn’t say it better myself. All of these concepts are the bedrock of this
blog and my philosophy of life as well, especially the part about the bullies.
Let’s
hope that the new Chancellor lives by his words and does not just talk the talk
as so many other UT leaders do. Somehow I think he will be a different
kind of UT leader and one who I suspect will make an important mark in a very
positive way.
So
welcome Admiral, errr—Chancellor McRaven. Please come to MD Anderson at your
earliest convenience and see what your predecessors left you as an
inheritance—a world-class faculty with minor league leadership.
And
when you get here and meet that leadership please think:
Nevermore.
