Ohio State’s Gee Tops Time’s 10 Best College Presidents
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 E. Gordon Gee and Gaston Caperton at Forum 2009
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The Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee tops the list of Time magazine’s 2009 "Top 10 Best College Presidents," accompanied by “nine presidents to watch.” In his tribute to “The Big Man on Campus,” Time’s David Von Drehle describes Gee as “one of the most experienced university executives in the U.S.,” saying “he is campaigning for a revolution in higher education at a time when the field is more important, and perhaps more troubled, than ever before.”
At the 2009 College Board Forum held Oct. 21–23 in New York, attendees were able to hear Gee speak passionately about what he sees as a terrific opportunity to create a new American education ecosystem. “This annual forum, and the College Board itself, incorporates all of the right people to make the far-reaching and enduring changes that are called for at this moment in our nation’s history,” said Gee. “Three hundred million Americans are looking to those of us in this room for solutions.”
At the Forum, he stressed the importance of ensuring that young people have two things: the financial means and the early guidance to earn a college degree. He offered examples of two new programs that The Ohio State University, a member of the College Board, has created to address these needs. The first is the university’s Students First program, which responds to students’ financial barriers by increasing funds available for loans, decreasing interest rates and guaranteeing that financial aid will rise proportionately if tuition increases — all of which is sustained by an enormous fundraising initiative. The school’s Economic Access Initiative brings faculty, staff, students and alumni into schools around the state to nurture in children the belief that they can achieve in college and beyond. They act as role models, tutors, counselors and friends.
These are examples of what Drehle describes as “Gee's permanent campaign mode [, which] is an acknowledgment of the power and responsibility of today’s higher-ed leaders. He doesn’t shy from tasks on par with those of Ohio’s big-city mayors, members of Congress, even the governor.” It is easy to see why Gee — who presides over a $4.35 billion budget, 40,000 employees and 63,200 students — was selected as Time’s Best College President.
Gee is also a former president of Brown University, Vanderbilt University and the University of West Virginia.
Read Time’s article: Top 10 Best College Presidents: Ohio State’s Gee and nine other dynamos.
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