I've really been disappointed in this group of regents. To me, both the Ono hiring and now the Syverud pick represent a lack of courage, vision, or just an unwillingness to put in the time to actually find a younger more dynamic, principled leader. Syverud looks like a nice guy but from what I've seen of him he looks like he's not aging well, like he's already exhausted with life. If we get anything more than caretaking from him I'll be pleasantly surprised.
Ironic that a group supposedly politically 'liberal' is so conservative/cowardly/risk averse in their hiring - leadership in general. I'm afraid it's getting to be that high profile people in the state are seeking the job more for the cachet (and as a party funding payoff) than because they care about the 'U', in contrast to some of the old-timers we had for whom it was a vocation - folks that lived, breathed and bled blue.
It's a challenge as a voter because most anyone running on the GOP side recently is just a bomb thrower so we are stuck with who the Dems put up.