Editor’s Note: The Choice Is Obvious

The University of Washington may be one of our states most important institutions. It brings in $1.5 billion a year in research money and produces technology to fuel our economy. Yet it has had weak leadership since 2002, when Richard McCormick was pressured to resign as president after having an affair with a subordinate.

McCormicks successor, Mark Emmert, was hired in spite of serious questions about his oversight of a $1 billion construction project while he was chancellor of the University of Connecticut and his mishandling of a scandal surrounding the football coach he hired while president of Louisiana State University. Even though Emmerts UW salary made him the second most highly paid public university president in the United States, he left after just six years for a $2-million-a-year job as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

In 2011, the university hired Michael Young, who left the University of Utah after reportedly having an affair with the wife of a prominent philanthropist whose family had given hundreds of millions of dollars to the university. Many at the UW felt Young was never committed to the job here there were reports of his falling asleep at regents meetings and he confirmed that hunch when he abruptly left Montlake earlier this year for a higher-paying job as president of Texas A&M University.

The Board of Regents has said an important consideration in choosing the next leader of the UW will be the persons ability to handle relations with the state Legislature. Let the record show that the last three presidents did a dismal job in that regard. On their watches, the states contribution to the UW plummeted.

Rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a recruiting company to hire yet another president in the same mold, perhaps the regents should try someone truly committed to making the UW the best that it can be. Interim President Ana Mari Cauce meets the requirement. A Yale Ph.D., Cauce has a strong academic background and great leadership skills. As a gay Latina who has faced hardships most of us could scarcely imagine, she has shown herself to be resilient and capable of handling the many sensitive issues around diversity that all universities must address. She has played critical roles in launching such important initiatives as the Husky Promise, which guarantees full tuition for qualified low-income students. She worked closely with Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to revitalize the University District and has been instrumental in encouraging the commercialization of UW research and in making innovation a more central part of the student experience. She proved herself a capable leader as chair of several departments, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and university provost. She has the added advantage of being much loved by UW staff and faculty and respected by community leaders.

Raised by parents who were Cuban exiles, Cauce sought and found in Seattle a place to call home. She plans to remain here, and she is passionate about expanding UWs role as a place that transforms young peoples lives and has a big impact on the region and the world.

A competent administrator who is passionate about the university and its global reach who better to convince legislators that the UW is a great investment? Lets not give that job to another white male who treats the UW as a steppingstone to a higher salary. The best candidate is already sitting in the presidents office.