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Tuesday, 19 December 2006 17:01 |
 | | Roland Martin |
CHICAGO ÇƒÓ Now that Robert Gates has been confirmed as secretary of defense, that massive bureaucracy better get ready for a man who will not allow tradition and culture to get in the way of progress.
Washington, D.C. is a strange animal. Itës a place where people hate to make changes in order not to upset the status quo. Yet itës vital to have a change agent in place who is unwilling to keep doing the same thing over and over just because someone else said thatës how it has always been done.
When Bob Gates ran the Central Intelligence Agency, I wasnët privy to knowing him and observing how he did his job. But after watching him serve as president of my alma mater, Texas A&M University, there is no doubt that Gates wonët be some lackey who will hold down the job for the next two years.
In many respects, Texas A&M offered Gates the kind of training that he needed to take over after
Donald
Rumsfeld, the ornery leader who ruffled so many feathers that even
long-serving generals got sick of his management style. It wasnët that
he made changes; it was that he simply refused to listen, and blamed
others, when the stuff blew up in his face.
When Gates
arrived in College Station, Texas, five years ago, many in the Aggie
family didnët know what to make of him. He didnët come from inside the
institution. But the moment he stepped onto the campus, it became
abundantly clear that what the Aggies had come to accept as status quo
had gone out of the door.
One of the most
contentious issues facing the university was that of diversity. Texas
A&M is a conservative institution, with the Corp of Cadets having a
major influence on university life ÇƒÓ that shouldnët come as a surprise
considering the military has always been seen in that light. So
anything Republican went over well, and affirmative action wasnët at
the top of the list.
But realizing
that the university couldnët become elite with such a lily-white
student body, Gates plunged headfirst into the problem.
And boy did he get ripped.
White Aggies who
poured big-time bucks into the university gave him an earful. And of
course, black and Hispanic Aggies made it clear that the second-largest
state school in Texas had better step up to the plate and support the
goal of diversifying the campus.
So Gates came
up with an aggressive plan that didnët take race into account, but
surely made a strong effort to reach out to black and Latino students.
But he took it a step further. He outlawed the use of legacy in
admissions, ruling that if Aggies wanted to be against affirmative
action ÇƒÓ which they claimed was unfair ÇƒÓ he felt the same about giving
a slot in college to someone because their dad finished from the
university.
That was just
one area this 1991 graduate saw where Gates made clear that the old way
of doing business wouldnët suffice. Whether it was removing a popular
football coach, bringing in a new basketball coach because results were
not coming fast enough, or pushing hard for the expansion of teaching
positions, Gates took the hits from his critics, but still refused to
stand still and watch a great university become irrelevant.
It is my desire
that what I personally witnessed in Aggieland will be repeated at the
Pentagon. He was correct to tell Congress that weëre losing the war in
Iraq. And once he assumes command of the military, he will listen to
the people on the ground and make the tough calls.
Gone will be the
days of seeing Rumsfeld hold his almost-daily press briefings. If Gates
holds one a week Iëll be shocked. And thatës a good thing.
The quicker
Gates works on bringing our troops home, and ending this debacle of a
war, then weëll get something that has been missing for some time: some
good news.
ï
Roland S. Martin, editor of The Chicago Defender newspaper, is author of "Speak, Brother! A Black Manës View of America."
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