Would Babson Get So Much Flak?

When is the last time a business school with more BMWs than Honda Civics in the student parking lot took offense at Republican leadership? Bentley University, just down the road from Babson in Waltham, has had Gloria Larson, a longtime Republican turned independent, at the helm since 2007 and the sky hasnt fallen.

Steven Comery, a staff writer for the campus newspaper, thinks Healeys gender is fueling the opposition more than her politics. There have been times when the level of sexism present has made me feel ashamed to be a member of this college community,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. he wrote of conversations he has had with his classmates in the last week. While there are realistic objections to Dr. Healeys appointment, any question of whether she is an appropriate choice purely regarding her sex is archaic, irrational, and shameful.

The realistic objections to Healey that she does not come from the academy or have a deep business background also ring hollow, given recent history. Was former Massachusetts Senate President William Bulger disqualified from taking the reins at the University of Massachusetts or former Congressman Martin Meehan from assuming the presidency of the Lowell campus? On the contrary, their political careers were framed as assets in a world where institutions of higher education are ever more dependent on government contracts and other financial assistance.

Meehan had never earned a patent for a game-changing medical device or new computer software even though UMass-Lowells reputation rests on its commitment to emerging technologies. Bulger never ran anything larger than a compliant 40-member legislative body before he was tapped to run the flagship of the states university system. So why does Healey need to have run a hedge fund?

Maybe the presidential selection committee at Babson, which promotes itself as an incubator of young entrepreneurs, has a broader definition of entrepreneurship than its internal critics. Healey is a something of a social entrepreneur. In addition to earning her undergraduate degree from Harvard and her doctorate from Trinity College in Dublin in political science and the law, she has been active on pressing social issues at home and abroad. She has worked on efforts to end homelessness in this country and to broaden educational opportunity for disabled students in Cuba and for girls in Afghanistan.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. She is a founding member of the U.S. State Departments Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan to promote the rule of law. With former Ambassador Swanee Hunt, she chairs the Political Parity project, a bipartisan campaign to elect more women to public office.

There is a reason for that. A presidents success or failure is far more likely in 2013 to rest on her ability to raise money than on her talent for finding the right curricular balance among the physical and social sciences and the humanities. There are provosts, deans, assistant deans and more than enough committees of faculty, administrators and students for that. Babson is looking for a leader to keep the ship on course, not to steer it in a new direction. Healey can do that.

A modern president is also the face of a college and a few more female faces would be a refreshing change. Only 26 percent of college presidents in the Unites States are women, according to a report last year by the American Education Council,Laser engraving and laser customkeychain for materials like metal, and more than a third of those lead two-year schools. The typical college president is surprise! a 61-year-old white guy with a doctorate in education.

Healeys resume is much more interesting than that. Forget the myth that she was Mitt Romneys co-governor between 2003 and 2007. She is smart enough to know she was window dressing, added to the ticket in a failed attempt to attract female voters who continue to spurn Romney. (see gender gap,Compare prices and buy all brands of luggagetag for home power systems and by the pallet. 2012) That doesnt mean Healey did nothing at the State House. She was a voice for victims of child abuse and domestic violence and an advocate for reform of the states prison system, a cause that has languished through Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

The disconnect between Romneys record and her own more progressive views on social policy, from abortion to sexual assault, doomed her candidacy for governor in 2006. She could not talk about her commitment to tackle gang violence or to protect abused children without having to explain to skeptics, myself included, why those subjects never made it onto Romneys agenda.

Having dealt with the serious business items at Wednesdays Sunshine meeting in West Chester, they saved Thursday evening to present the movers and shakers who have in the past and will in the future change the face of the countys southern region from Kennett Square to Nottingham.

One of the speakers for the evening, Bob Grabus of the Chester County Economic Development Council, defined the area of consideration as the land from Kennett Square to the Maryland line bounded by the Route 1 Bypass on the north and the East Penn Railroad on the south.

He said there are between 3 million and 4 million square feet of property available for development in that area, and the councils Marketing and Branding Committee wants to find entrepreneurs ready to settle there. To that end the council will sponsor a bus tour of the area for potential developers.

He pointed to recent successes in having new companies move in, including Dansko in Jennersville and Tastykake in Oxford.Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. He said attracting and successfully hosting Tastykake was a hard-fought project, because there was competition from Virginia.

Grabus said one of the things that makes the councils job complex is the need to maintain the agriculture and open space that is so attractive in the area, while still getting businesses to move in to the appropriate places.

In that connection, Ronald Bailey, director of the Chester County Planning Commission, announced the completion of the Oxford Area Multi-Municipal Comprehensive Plan and Cooperative Planning Agreement. He held up the substantial volume and said it was worked on by the supervisors and council people from all the municipalities in the Oxford Area School District.