G. David Gearhart, chancellor of the University of Arkansas from 2008 to 2015, has released a new book, Confessions of a Chancellor: The Politics of Higher Education, A Memoir, that gives readers an exceptionally candid view of the demands placed on leaders in higher education.
From high-stakes athletic decisions to the demands and tradeoffs of fundraising and closed-door board discussions in a period of changing state politics, Gearhart’s book covers notable events at the U of A in the last 25 years and follows his life from childhood in Fayetteville to his time at Penn State before returning home to Northwest Arkansas.
The book covers most of the notable events at the U of A in the last 25 years, from the 2012 termination of Razorback football coach Bobby Petrino to the milestone achievement of the U of A being named to America’s top level of research universities by the Carnegie Foundation. All told with an exceptional memory for detail and with references to material available in the public record.
Other highlights include the historic $300 million gift from the Walton Family Foundation to endow an Honors College, support graduate education and bolster the resources of the U of A Libraries; the logistics involved in bringing the Dalai Lama to campus; Gearhart’s work on the Dream Act, which forced him to take a strong stand at the national level of the academy; and the founding of a prominent and widely emulated campus food pantry.
“This book is not meant to be solely about the author’s life, but rather the many experiences that I lived and breathed during 52 years in higher education,” Gearhart said. “To be a president is a way of life, if you do it the right way. Good presidents cannot get away from the job, which is constant and unforgiving.”
At center stage are the vision for an honors college at the state’s flagship university as well as the complex series of negotiations that brought this concept into being. Nicknamed “Quantum,” for the leap it would allow the U of A to make, the Walton gift is one of many illuminating sections in this lively romp through the challenges of higher education leadership. Gearhart takes his readers from the forging of the gift agreement to the release of gift details, all while adhering to the state’s Freedom of Information statute.
Gearhart’s tenure as chancellor also evidenced his strong commitment to interdisciplinary research and the visual arts, a signature style memorialized by the Gearhart Curvahedra, which is the cover art for the book. The curvahedra is a sculpture designed by a team of faculty from Mathematical Sciences and Architecture, putting in concrete form Gearhart’s mission to both beautify and edify the campus.
This article first was published Feb. 23, 2023, in the University of Arkansas News feed.
Confessions of a Chancellor is available for order or purchase from online booksellers and bookstores. It was published in December 2022 by Sequoyah Press.
Dave Gearhart is founding editor of the Journal of Research on the College President, a project of the National Lab for the Study of the College President at the University of Arkansas.
