Recently the CBS show Undercover Boss announced that its season finale will include University of California – Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White. The Chancellor puts on a fake mustache and a new haircut to disguise himself on campus as a “regular Joe” with the new name of Pete. However, is this the right time to watch a higher ed leader on a reality-TV show trying to reconnect with their campus?
Background
As mentioned in my August 2010 blog on Freaky Friday Tactics, these swapping or undercover tactics are nothing new. President or other campus leaders swap positions with a student for a day, go undercover, or something of similar flavor. As mentioned in the blog, campus leaders who take part in the swap often learn something new about their staff, faculty, and students. The idea is cool to have a campus leader involved in the show doing an undercover review of his school and has potential for a great marketing spin.
The Chancellor states in an article in UCR Newsroom titled A Chancellor Undercover that also confirms he is reconnecting with his stakeholders and playing the marketing spin mentioned above:
Here are 2 promos of the episode to be aired on May 1 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time on CBS.
Critical Look at Timing
Is this the right time for this kind of look into higher education and an attempt to watch a chancellor reestablish ties with his campus? This is the first time a campus leader will go undercover for the show. I also think it is one of the first time Undercover Boss took a bit of risk with the show. All of its past shows deal with companies in a business sense dealing with everyday business issues like location of stores, marketing, workforce issues and training, process and operations, and other similar issues.
There are many large issues hitting higher ed lately that many of the companies previously featured on Undercover Boss don’t have to deal with. Higher education is dealing with talks of higher ed reform, accessibility, rising tuition, higher student loan debt, protests, decreasing state funds, layoffs and furloughs, mergers, increased competition, restructuring, and fierce budget battles and many many other tough issues. The entertainment value of the show will most likely gloss over these hard-hitting issues.
My suspisions are confirmed after reading several articles and the promo clip (above) on the subject (A Chancellor Strolls His Campus in Disguise on CBS’s ‘Undercover Boss, UC-Riverside chancellor goes undercover as ‘Pete’- The Washington Post (Campus Overload),and UCR chancellor goes undercover – Highland Community News) where it seems like the biggest highlights featured in the show include “Pete” becoming confused by organic-chemistry, not being able to use a projector and class equipment, timing a track student, stumbling as he attempts to walk backward during a campus tour, and figuring out the alphabet as library staff. It is more or less a show of the chancellor trying to reconnect with his constituents. While it is entertaining, it may not be the information that those close to higher ed would like to see at the moment.
My biggest worry is that this show has a campus leader trying to reconnect with his stakeholders during a tough times for the world of academia as a whole. I am not sure if this is true for everyone else, but this is eerily familiar of past flubs of past U.S. leaders trying to become more relatable with the citizens of the U.S. Incidents like Dan Quayle’s spelling of “potatoe” and George Bush’s encounter with supermarket technology come to mind. They were both failed attempts of a leader trying to be relatable and reconnect with citizens during hard times. We all know what these two flubs did for these U.S. leaders.
My question is, when there are so many higher education issues running through the news lately, is this the right time to watch a chancellor attempt to reconnect with the campus and foul up the use of decades-old education equipment?
How can you make judgements on a show when it still has a week to air. All teasers for show episodes are spun in different lights in order to attract the largest initial viewing crowd as possible. More often then not, the clips have little correlation to the ambiance of the full episode.
The shows intent was not to portray The Chancellor as an inept student, but was instead intended to represent the difficulties and intensities of the everyday student. This theme has shown through every episode of Undercover Boss. I was there for the filming, I was in the Organic Chemistry class, I know how the filming was conducted and if you believe that the difficulties the Chancellor showed with the material were drawn up for comedic purpose, I highly recommend you step into one of these classrooms.
Chancellor White is a beloved member of the Riverside community who has been working tirelessly to create an awareness of the importance of higher public education. As you mentioned, issues of higher education reform concerning tuition increases and loss of budgeting are at their prime; however, I do not believe that these issues have drawn the attention they deserve given their immense importance to our nations future. The education of the next generation is the greatest assurance of an improved future, an improved economy. At this point and especially in light of the disgustingly large budget cuts directed toward the University of California system, any attention I see directed toward the difficulties of the every day student I see to be beneficial and necessary regardless of presentation.
There is NO better time to build positive PR for the University than when faced with huge budget cuts. Kudos to UCR and Chancellor White for the vision and courage to do this.
It’s clear the author knows nothing of Chancellor White or UCR. Comparing him to either George Bush or Dan Quayle, or any politician for that matter, is ridiculous. He is not a buffoon, nor is he detached from the world at large. He is a family man who just happens to be chancellor at UCR. Will they showcase his mistakes, sure? That’s TV. But he has big enough shoulders that he can laugh at himself. But more importantly, will one of California’s unsung research universities, a school with 20,000 of our state’s best and brightest get some prime-time exposure to the world. Yes, it will. And in this time of shrinking budgets and debates over the significance of the university experience, what could be more important?
My argument is that many teachers simply ignore the technology in the classrooms and don’t even use it. Not knowing how to work a Crestron control panel is different than not knowing how to work a supermarket checkstand.
It’s not “decades-old equipment,” that is actually a new building on campus.
Good question. It will be interesting to see how the episode goes…
I should have made this a lot clearer in the original post. I am not going after Chancellor White or University of California Riverside specifically. It could have been Chancellor Robin Hood at Sherwood Forest University and this topic would have come up. I agree with both commenters (the lower case g). It is very brave of Chancellor White to put himself and the University out there. It is also a great marketing tactic, I don’t disagree.
The question I am getting at, from a state, regional, and national view, is this right time for a chancellor or any higher ed leader to be doing this kind of marketing tactic, especially in light of all the issues higher ed is facing that is mentioned above.
“is this the right time to watch a chancellor attempt to reconnect with the campus and foul up the use of decades-old education equipment?”
Since Chancellor White has been here at UCR, he has made a conscious effort to be connected to the students, faculty, and staff here at UCR. By any and all means, he is not attempting to “reconnect” during this fiscal crisis. Chancellor White is NOT some cold bureaucrat.
The budget cuts have hit UCR hard. A lot of the departments are suffering, and have had to make tough decisions. Undergraduate tuition has been raised while the University offers less classes.
Despite these these tough times, I can assure you, the Chancellor has worked in the interest of the University and everyone associated with it. This is an opportune moment for the Chancellor to address the financial problems the University is facing.
Let’s start saying I work at UCR. Let’s make clear I am not directly associated to the Chancellor’s Office. Let me tell you I had the chance to listen to the chancellor speak on several occasions, formal and informal. Let me tell you I cross path with him one time and he took time to talk to me about everyday issues. Let me tell you that on this times of issues running on higher education, I could not find another chancellor; or CEO of any company that can show better how dedicated we are about education, students body and the roll that higher education can play on the future of this state and country.
I haven’t seen anything about the episode to come and probably won’t watch it, but I rest assure we are on the hands of a great person.
Wow, lots of emotion coming through. I hope Chancellor White comes across as well as some of his believers think he will…sounds like a nice guy and smart leader!
But you bet I’ll be watching with great interest!
I will be watching the show. At least Chancellor White has the courage to market his UCR and the UC system during this difficult economic time, none of other UC Chancellors did that in the past on the national TV (CBS) show. I admire his good faith effort to complete the show for UCR and the Riverside community.
I think the show is a good start for a chancellor to see his/her university from a different angle and making the attempt to make it a better place. However, he should have connected with janitors and lower administrators, technicians, non-tenure scientists etc. to help improving the University and its working atmosphere. Those are the ones equally affected by the changes. What also shows the spirit of UC in general is that he introduced himself as CEO, which demonstrates that the UC has become a big corporation.