Time Ranks Gordon Gee one of 10 Best College Presidents

Time magazine has published a list of the 10 Best College Presidents and topping the list is Ohio State’s E. Gordon Gee.  Calling Gee one of the most experienced university executives in the US, Time cites Gee’s efforts to revolutionize higher education at a time when the field is more important, and perhaps more troubled, than ever.  Colleges and universities are the catalysts of economic development, stewards of public health, incubators of social policy and laboratories of discovery. Nearly every great national challenge including the quality of our food supply, the hunt for clean energy, the struggle against insurgent enemies and the quest for sustainable prosperity depend on institutions of higher education for solutions. 

“Most university presidents are focused on internal issues — the tug-of-war among faculty, students and alums — and they don't have the bandwidth to see how extensive their influence should be," says Leslie Wexner, chair of the university's board of trustees.  “Gordon understands the potential influence his job entails.”

Time  calls universities today America's regional economic powerhouses, one of the few certain engines of growth in good and bad economic times.  It further calls OSU a significant economic bright spot in the state.  Gee presides over some 40,000 employees, one of the state's largest and best hospitals, a major hive of research, a small-business incubator, a hugely popular sports-entertainment empire, a large portfolio of real estate (including a small city's worth of housing units) and a network of extension operations reaching into nearly every community in the state.

“By some measures, Ohio State is the largest research-university campus in the country — we think in the world," says Wexner.  "It is a very big, very powerful organization.”

For the full story, see Time.