New SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr is the 63rd Lawyer Appointed as a Chancellor in U.S. Higher Ed

On December 5, 2022, the State University of New York appointed lawyer John King as their next Chancellor. King, who is now the 15th Chancellor of the SUNY follows interim Chancellor Deborah F. Stanley who is also a lawyer.

From 2011 to 2015 Chancellor King served as the first African American and Puerto Rican education commissioner for the State of New York. He left New York in 2015 to become deputy secretary of education in the Obama administration, and a year later was appointed as the U.S. Secretary of Education. He is currently serving as the President of The Education Trust. In 2011 he was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to serve on the U.S. Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission.

King began his career in education as a high school social studies teacher. He founded a charter school in Roxbury, MA and he was appointed as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Education. He ran an unsuccessful primary bid for Governor of the State of Maryland in 2022.

John King earned his B.A. from Harvard University (where he as a Truman Scholar and received the James Madison Memorial Fellowship for secondary-level teaching), an MA from Teachers College at Columbia University, a J.D. from Yale Law School and his EdD from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Women Lawyers Occupy the Campus C-Suite Beginning in 1976 – Francis Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold

Although lawyers have been serving as college and university presidents since the 1700s, no campus had a woman lawyer president until 1976, and between 1976 and 2001, there were fewer than a dozen women lawyer campus presidents. The first non-lawyer woman college president, Frances Willard, was appointed in 1871 (albeit of an all‐women's school), it was not until 1925 that a woman, Emma Elizabeth Johnson, was appointed to lead a co‐educational institution, after the president, her husband, died.

Francis Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold was appointed as the 13th President of Wells College in 1976. At the age of 22, she was one of eight women to graduate from the University of Texas School of Law in 1949. After taking a hiatus from the law while she had five children, she returned to the profession in the early 1960s working on the City Human Relations Commission and as director of a county legal aid office. She was a trailblazer, becoming the only woman in the Texas House of Representatives in 1968. While Geraldine Ferraro may have been the first woman Vice Presidential candidate on the ballot in 1984 representing a major political party, Sissy Farenthold was nominated to for vice president at the Democratic National convention in 1972 (from the floor by Gloria Steinem and when voting was counted she came in second). The nomination followed an unsuccessful run for Governor in Texas. While in the Texas Legislature, Farenthold prioritized civil rights, raising the spending cap for welfare recipients, and she was a co-sponsor of the Texas Equal Rights Amendment. In the late 1960s she was part of a coalition of lawmakers known as the “dirty thirty” who advocated for accountability, transparency, ethics reform and open government. She entered the race for Governor again in 1974 trying to unseat the incumbent in a primary, but was unable to pull it off.

When Sissy was appointed as President of Wells College, she had no prior higher education work experience. At the time, Wells College was an all-women’s school known for leadership in women’s education. She had a successful four-year tenure during which time, among other things in 1978 she created a bipartisan Public Education Leadership Network (PLEN) designed to encourage college-aged women to enter public service. She was the first woman president of Wells College.

At the time of her death in September 2021, Texas Law School has produced four documentaries on her extraordinary life and a digital archive documenting her career. In 2022 the Government Accountability Project established a Fellowship in her name for the Protection of Democracy to honor her legacy to the struggle for transparency, truth and justice, and the University of Texas School of Law hosts an endowed lecture series in her name. The University of Texas School of Law considered Farenthold to be one of their most distinguished alumni, describing her as someone who “epitomized our highest and best traditions of leadership and courage.”

One Lawyer President Lasted Only Six Days Before Tendering Resignation

People are often curious as to the longevity in office for college and university presidents. While tenures are often brief, such brevity is typically counted in years, not weeks or days (In fact the ACE 2017 Study on the American College President reported that the average tenure had decreased to 6.5 years down from seven years in 2011 and 8.5 years in 2006).

In the case of Anthony Roberts Appel, his time as President of Franklin and Marshall lasted a mere 52 days in 1962! Appel submitted his resignation after just six days on the job but stayed until the Board of Trustees named his successor at the end of the following month. Appel, who was 47 years old when he was appointed as the 10th president of Franklin and Marshall, resigned due to faculty dissatisfaction with the manner in which he was appointed following a forced resignation of his predecessor (Frederick de Wolfe Bolman) by the board of Trustees.

Upon learning of both the forced resignation of President Bolman and the appointment of President Appel, the faculty through their AAUP Chapter wrote the following to the Chair of the Board of Trustees:

The undersigned members of the faculty of Franklin and Marshall College, in response to tour announcement by telegram informing us of the replacement of Dr. Frederick deWolfe Bolman Jr. by Mr. Anthony R. Appel as President of Franklin and Marshall College, wish to make the following observation:

(1) It is our understanding that Dr. Bolman was requested to submit his resignation without having been given information concerning the basis for the request, and furthermore, was denied the opportunity to appear in his own behalf at the special meeting of the Board of Trustees held on September 5, 1962. We deplore this obvious violation of academic due process in short, we find it contrary to the fundamental concept of fair play inherent in judicial procedure.

(2) We are extremely distressed at the violation of the tradition established on this campus in which the faculty has participated in the selection of a President. Indeed by the action of the majority of the Members of the Board of Trustees in attendance at the meeting of September 5, Franklin and Marshall has fallen from its leadership among enlightened institutions with regard to participation of the faculty in the selection of a President. This is a grievous blow to the prestige of our College. To foist a President on a faculty not only demeans the faculty, it compounds the burden of an office staggering even under auspicious circumstances.

Our only hope for the future of our College lies in the knowledge that a sizable minority of the Board of Trustees strongly opposed the malpractices giving rise to the action of which your telegram advised us. For their courageous stand we commend them most highly. In their stand we hope for the future of our College.

[names omitted]

According to the Student Weekly, Anthony Appel was the third member of his family to have been appointed as president of Franklin and Marshall (his great grandfather and great uncle also served). He was a 1935 graduate of the College and a 1938 graduate of Dickinson Law School. Prior to being appointed as president, Appel served on the College’s Board of Trustees for five years, served as alumni council president, and co-chaired the College’s annual giving campaign. According to the newspaper, his only other experience in the field of education was serving as chair of the board of the Lancaster Theological Seminary. Appel was a practicing attorney, he was active in the community serving on other non-profit boards, and he was active politically with the local Republican Committee.

His resignation letter to the Chair of the Board of Trustees read:

Dear Mr. Schnader:

In confirmation of our telephone conversation today, I hereby submit my resignation as President of Franklin and Marshall College effective at the end of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees on October27, 1962.

Just as I was motivated by my love for my Alma Mater in accepting the election, I am likewise so motivated in submitting my resignation. As you know, I did not seek the position and in giving it up I am not thinking of myself, but of the fragmentation my election has caused.

Without malice, but with goodwill to all . . . faculty, staff, trustees, students, alumni and friends . . . let us now forthwith direct ourselves to making our College the best College it can be.

My law partners and I have agreed that I will be on a leave of absence in the interim.

With my respectful regards, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

Anthony R. Appel (signed)

When Keith Spalding was named President to succeed Appel, the editorial in the Student Weekly proclaimed, “…the College came to the end of a stormy period.”

The lessons learned from this story are multi-fold. Focusing on lawyers and leadership though, one can surmise that Appel was moved by the faculty concerns regarding lack of due process and that in analyzing the situation like a lawyer, Appel knew the faculty were correct and his sense of fairness and justice prevailed. Also, lawyers are problem-solvers, and in hindsight it seems clear that Appel didn’t want to be the problem, but rather he desired to be part of the positive solution to help an institution he cared about deeply. President Appel exhibited outstanding leadership by sacrificing his own opportunity for the good of the institution. This is a lesson all higher education leaders should follow.