we thought that would help him in dealing with the problems of a liberal arts college like ours,” Grissom said at the time.
Adams replaced the popular Richard L. Morrill, who left Centre to become president of the University of Richmond. Educated at Brown, Yale and Duke, Morrill was the author of three books and numerous scholarly papers. Adams’s body of research basically consisted of his master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation, both unpublished. As his resume was being read for the first time to the assembled faculty at Centre in 1988, an administrator remembers that one professor turned to him and whispered: “Dr. Morrill had no peers on this campus . . . and neither does this guy.”
Adams did have energy, fundraising skill, and a network of political contacts. He put all to work at Centre, as he has throughout his career, following a consistent path as a builder of structures if not consensus. He established residential foreign studies programs in London, England, and Strasbourg, France. He also began the most ambitious fundraising program in the school’s history, eventually more than tripling the school’s endowment to $120 million and helping establish that previously mentioned enviable record of alumni giving. By the end of his tenure, private gifts and grants to Centre were approaching $9 million a year, up from $1.4 million when he arrived. As the money flowed in, Adams spent lavishly to improve Centre’s physical facilities, according to faculty members. (After Adams left Centre, the school’s financial officer was forced to resign, ostensibly for moving money from one fund to another to mask Adams’s spending.)
One knock on Adams has been that he is hot-tempered and imperious. Predictably, these qualities did not universally endear him to Centre’s faculty any more than they have at Georgia. In fact, some of Adams’s most enthusiastic support for his being hired at UGA seems to have come from a faction within the Centre faculty.
Many had tired of nine years of what some described as bulldozer tactics. A quiet revolt was being plotted by eighteen senior professors at Centre after unilateral changes to the faculty handbook, in violation of the college’s own policies. Adams blamed a dean for making the change without his permission; faculty members said they knew better. “It was done at Adams’s instruction,” said a senior faculty member who was at the meeting. “He stood right there and lied to sixteen senior faculty members. When you lie to sixteen faculty members you don’t build capital.” Three other faculty members confirmed the professor’s recollection.
Trustee chairman David Grissom reportedly soured on Adams over the years; he did not respond to inquiries about his relationship with the former Centre president. Journalist Richard Wilson, who had written the 1988 Adams preview in the Louisville Courier-Journal, recalled getting a telephone call from Adams about a year later. Adams wanted to have lunch and chat. They met at the posh Lafayette Club atop Lexington’s tallest bank building. “I sat and listened to him for an hour and a half and all he talked about was the rich and influential people he had met,” Wilson said. “As if I cared. I thought it was not very savvy of him in dealing with media people.”
Charles Vahlkamp, a retired Centre faculty member who attended the meeting with Adams, recalled that “there was a big sigh of relief” when Adams got the UGA job. “Tensions were building and so it really meant we didn’t have to continue along that path,” said Vahlkamp, meaning the path toward a showdown with Adams before the Centre board of trustees. Georgia saved them the trouble. A decade after Adams left the school, Centre professors still speak of Adams with a tinge of resentment and conflicted feelings.
“You’d like to say he’s gone and forgotten but that’s not the case,” said Vahlkamp. “It’s surprising he went to a school like [Georgia]. He’s good at some aspects but he is a divisive character. Not a consensus builder. Still, I don’t think anyone would say his presidency was detrimental to [Centre] in any way.”
If Adams had any misgivings about his ability to make the leap from Centre to UGA it certainly didn’t show. Following his carefully scripted initial appearance at the University Arch, he toured the various UGA institutions, armed with talking points that had been prepared for him by the chancellor’s office. Making note of the considerable concern about Adams’s lack of experience, Chancellor Portch advised him to reach out to the existing administration and faculty at Georgia:
You likely have read some of the press clipping since the announcement of your appointment and already have noted the questions about your past experience as an educator and administrator as it relates to large, land-grant, research institutions. In general, I suggest you appeal for help from those present, for time to learn, and give assurances that you are prepared to provide strong, decisive leadership within the context of close collaboration with the faculty and others who have the expertise to meet the needs of the University of Georgia. It would also be wise to state that you are aware of the positive role that the Staff Council has played in providing input and advice to the president.
4
On his first work day in June 1997, the University of Georgia’s new president met with community leaders, faculty and staff, sticking close to the guidelines Portch had scripted. Adams spoke of lofty goals for the university—of establishing international educational programs, of increasing research, of creating a system to reward teaching, and of becoming a part of the greater Athens community. He promised a team effort in “moving this great university to the next level.” Students, he said, would be his primary focus.
In his first State of the University speech in January 1998, Adams elaborated on his plans to increase the school’s foreign studies program, as he had done at Centre College. He emphasized that he wanted to take UGA to national prominence. The speech was well-received on and off campus, and at this point faculty and community response to Adams’s vision for UGA seemed generally positive.
However, there were warning tremors. Shortly after settling into Charles Knapp’s old office, Adams announced plans to restructure the school’s upper management team, reducing the number of senior vice presidents from seven to three. Adams also created the Office of Provost and hired Karen Holbrook, Vice President for Research at the University of Florida, to the new position, a move explained as a way to free himself from some of the day-to-day management tasks, thus allowing him to be away from campus more often to raise funds. But it had the effect of isolating Adams from the faculty, some of whom were already grumbling about his corporate CEO management style. His early words about a “team effort” were beginning to ring hollow to senior faculty and staff who felt their input was ignored as Adams dismantled the existing hierarchy of university governance and replaced key administrators with his own loyal supporters.
In January 1999, Adams announced plans to add four schools and colleges to the Athens campus. A part of the expansion would have dismantled the prestigious Grady College of Journalism, creating in its place a new College of Communications that would include rhetorical studies, speech, and technology. Faculty and prominent alumni revolted. What stuck in the journalism faculty’s craw was that Adams had not bothered to consult with them. “I am sickened and saddened by this,” said journalism professor Conrad Fink. Grady College Dean Tom Russell knew nothing about the proposed changes until the evening before Adams was to announce them during his second State of the University speech.
Russell made no attempt to hide his disappointment. “As you can imagine, mass communication and speech therapy are not areas in the past that have had any [curriculum] relationship. I really think the reaction is somewhat surprised, simply because for all of us this really had not been something that had been considered.” A month later, the well-regarded Russell, who had been at the school for thirty-four years, announced he was resigning as dean so he could to return to the classroom—not at UGA but seventy miles away at tiny Piedmont College. “It was too good of an opportunity to pass up,” Russell wryly explained. Adams said he
