Governance and Gordon Gee

[NOTE: There's an update to this story available, now that Gordon Gee has announced that he is leaving Vanderbilt for Ohio State, where he was president from 1990 to 1997.]

Vanderbilt University reacts to a Wall Street Journal article about the expensive habits of its president and efforts by its Board of Trust to install controls on spending and outside board memberships.  But like many things associated with higher education, it all comes down to: parking. 

The Wall Street Journal (Joann S. Lublin & Daniel Golden) finally ran its story about the governance of Vanderbilt University (EIN 62-0476822 Form 990) under the presidency of Gordon Gee.  Vanderbilt's $2.2 billion income would rank it at about 800 among public companies, if it were one.  The university pays Mr. Gee about $1.3 million in salary and deferred benefits.  (In a story two weeks ago in the Nashville City Paper anticipating the WSJ coverage, Mr. Gee points out that after 25 years heading universities, he is finally getting paid more than the football coach.) 

As is often the case the WSJ story about Vanderbilt University is reprinted for free Internet access by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mr. Gee has made a career of heading universities, starting with West Virginia University in 1981, when he was 37.   Then:

• University of Colorado (which built him a $780,969 house), increased state support 37% 
• Ohio State ($500,000 to $700,000 in housing renovations), confronted budget cuts, started $1 billion fund raising campaign
• Brown University ($3 million in housing renovations), stayed only 3 years before leaving for Vanderbilt in 2000

At Vanderbilt, Mr. Gee made many structural changes and the endowment has increased by 150%, to $3 billion.  The housing renovations this time apparently exceeded $6 million. 

Nobody said much about this until it came out that Mr. Gee's wife Constance (who is also a tenured professor at Vanderbilt) was smoking pot in the mansion.  That, along with Mrs. Gee's liberal politics, is what got the attention of the trustees.  They started investigating expenditures, and a board committee recommended that the board take a more active role in strategic planning, capital spending, and executive compensation.  The board has since set up a panel specifically to monitor the President's expenses. 

They also took action against Mr. Gee's five outside board seats, a side job that brings him about $400,000 annually in cash and stock.  He sits on the board of Dollar General Corp. (compensation committee), Massey Energy Co., Gaylord Entertainment Co., Limited Brands Inc. and Hasbro Inc.  Under the new rules, he will be limited to three board seats.  (Mr. Gee claims that corporate boards are his hobby, since he doesn't drink, smoke, or play golf.) 

In the course of its investigation the Wall Street Journal found out that one of the Vanderbilt trustees, Monroe J. Carell Jr., is the founder and chair of Central Parking Corp., the world's largest operator of parking facilities.  Since 1974, Central Parking has managed the parking at Vanderbilt without competitive bidding.  When the athletic department tried to switch parking managers in 2002 after complaints about football parking rates, Mr. Carrell called the athletic director and the Central Parking contract was renewed.  Vanderbilt has now put the parking contract out for bid, but the outcome has not yet been announced. 

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