Gee headed back to Ohio State
When he left in 1997, he said he regretted not seeing the completion of those projects. ‘I just hope they invite me back when they’re finished,’ he said at the time.
Invitation granted.
Gee is leaving the top post at Vanderbilt University to return to Ohio State as president, a position he held from 1990 to 1997.
‘This was by far the most difficult professional decision that I have ever made,’ Gee said in the statement addressed to ‘Dear Colleagues.’
Gee, known for his dapper bow-ties, devotion to OSU’s football program and popularity with students, said he was following his heart and returning to a place he considered home. Gee was popular enough in the state to be briefly discussed as a Democratic candidate for governor.
‘Over the past several weeks, members of the University Board and the University family have done everything possible to make me feel valued and appreciated,’ Gee said, hinting at the negotiations to keep him at Vanderbilt. ‘I assure you that I do,’ he wrote.
Gee had been speaking with Ohio State for the last several weeks and initially declined an offer but changed his mind in the past couple of days, Vanderbilt spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said Wednesday.
No details of Gee’s compensation were released, but his price tag for returning to Ohio State was expected to be hefty.
Gee, who earned a $232,000 salary at Ohio State in 1997, made about $1.2 million at Vanderbilt in 2004-05 ‘ including a salary of $905,296 and other pay and benefits ‘ according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Departed OSU president Karen Holbrook, who resigned after five years, earned a salary of about $475,000.
Gee, 63, left Ohio State for Brown University, then became chancellor at Vanderbilt in 2000. He also served previously as president of the University of Colorado and West Virginia University.
Gee was a fundraising whiz at Vanderbilt, completing a $1.25 billion campaign for construction money two years ahead of schedule and raising the goal to $1.75 billion. He also increased the university’s endowment by almost 50 percent to more than $3 billion.
But he also generated controversy when he disbanded Vanderbilt’s athletics department, saying athletics had become too separate from the rest of the university.
In September, the university’s governing board tightened financial oversight of the chancellor after lavish spending at Gee’s school-owned historic mansion, according to a published news report.
Ohio State’s Columbus campus had 51,818 students during the past school year ‘ the highest enrollment nationally at a public university. Vanderbilt’s enrollment is about 6,300 students.