[Goose]

Hennessey (sp) was pretty good.

I think lots of people would agree with you. He ran the University in a manner that corresponded to his goals, basically like a business. I think he was effective and respected. However, I totally disagree with his emphasis. He fostered/assisted in creating a University that is much more bureaucratic than he found it. This bureaucracy consumes lots of money but in many cases produces no educational value added and in quite a few cases actually gets in the way. It does provide a vehicle for many empires to be built however.

He also fostered a physical plant that I think is in many ways very overbuilt yet does not serve the needs of the students. Although he is an engineer, I think the engineering faculty is a mere shadow of what it was in former times. We could undoubtedly have a discussion about his tenure, but as you may gather I am not at all happy with his results. He was in many ways effective, and that is the problem :-)

Since I graduated, long ago, I have had few opportunities and not a lot of interest in meeting the then President's of the University.  My father and Wally Sterling were graduate students together at Stanford in the early 1930's.  When I showed up on campus I was invited along with many of my fellow Frosh to a reception at Sterling's residence.  The man turned Stanford from a regional school in need of money to a school with a national reputation.  We may well have had Presidents as good as Wally Sterling, but I am not sure we have had any better.
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He was president when I attended as well. He was effective in many ways, and a great deal was accomplished on his watch. He was able to build a world class University, attract a faculty to match, and increase the number of students who received financial aid massively. He also helped create the Stanford Industrial Park which obviously played a big part in making "Silicon Valley" exist. Most impressively in my book, he did it without creating a soulless monolith in the process. He did have some issues right at the end, as he was just not prepared to deal with the student unrest that broke out on campus. Then again, nobody really was and he was already on his way out when things got bad. There are a few other things, he wasn't perfect, but IMO he was indeed a great president.

[Goose]

Hennessey (sp) was pretty good.

I think lots of people would agree with you. He ran the University in a manner that corresponded to his goals, basically like a business. I think he was effective and respected. However, I totally disagree with his emphasis. He fostered/assisted in creating a University that is much more bureaucratic than he found it. This bureaucracy consumes lots of money but in many cases produces no educational value added and in quite a few cases actually gets in the way. It does provide a vehicle for many empires to be built however.

He also fostered a physical plant that I think is in many ways very overbuilt yet does not serve the needs of the students. Although he is an engineer, I think the engineering faculty is a mere shadow of what it was in former times. We could undoubtedly have a discussion about his tenure, but as you may gather I am not at all happy with his results. He was in many ways effective, and that is the problem :-)

Since I graduated, long ago, I have had few opportunities and not a lot of interest in meeting the then President's of the University.  My father and Wally Sterling were graduate students together at Stanford in the early 1930's.  When I showed up on campus I was invited along with many of my fellow Frosh to a reception at Sterling's residence.  The man turned Stanford from a regional school in need of money to a school with a national reputation.  We may well have had Presidents as good as Wally Sterling, but I am not sure we have had any better.
.

He was president when I attended as well. He was effective in many ways, and a great deal was accomplished on his watch. He was able to build a world class University, attract a faculty to match, and increase the number of students who received financial aid massively. He also helped create the Stanford Industrial Park which obviously played a big part in making "Silicon Valley" exist. Most impressively in my book, he did it without creating a soulless monolith in the process. He did have some issues right at the end, as he was just not prepared to deal with the student unrest that broke out on campus. Then again, nobody really was and he was already on his way out when things got bad. There are a few other things, he wasn't perfect, but IMO he was indeed a great president.