Former UNT president Alfred Hurley remembered

[Harry]

‘He restored order’

Roy Busby, a longtime UNT journalism professor, said Hurley’s military background defined his leadership, in a good way.

“At the time he came in, the university had gone through some chaos,” Busby said.

UNT had gone through four leaders in three years. State lawmakers had looked into allegations that some UNT officials had misused private donations to a university foundation. No one was indicted, but one president resigned before he was to testify before lawmakers, according to news reports at the time.

Hurley became UNT’s president in 1982 after two years as a vice president.

“His legacy is he restored order,” Busby said. “You always got the feeling with President Hurley that he was very much in control, and that he thought everything out before he did anything in a very military way.”

Chancellor Lee Jackson, who succeeded Hurley, said that Hurley’s efforts laid the groundwork for what the modern university looks like. The two had worked together before Jackson joined UNT, and he recalled that Hurley was fair and thoughtful, and always offered helpful advice as Jackson transitioned into the position.

“I knew and respected and liked Dr. Hurley, even before I came to UNT, and I felt that I was filling very large shoes,” Jackson said. “He was widely respected in the region and the state and on campus, and was always very gracious to me.”

Colleagues said Hurley also built strong relationships with regents, lawmakers, community leaders and others. That ability, they said, helps explain how Hurley kept his job for so long.

In a public letter Sunday, UNT President Lane Rawlins wrote, “Dr. Hurley personified all that is good about UNT — always putting in a hard day’s work, always demanding excellence, and always pushing onward and upward. His impact can be felt in every part of our university and it will far outlive the time that we had with him.”

read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20130610-former-university-of-north-texas-president-alfred-hurley-remembered-for-bringing-stability-to-school.ece

[ragpicker]

I have a vague sort of memory from those days of a scandal involving some administrators who allegedly used a rather nice donation from a wealthy alum to basically party hardy. Our president at that time was an ex Texas cheerleader with the rather amusing name of CC"Jitter" Nolan who held no degree beyond a Masters.

We were very fortunate to hire someone of Dr, Hurley's background and talent following that peculiar period of debacle, embarrassment and, perhaps, even downright dishonesty.

Perhaps someone on this board can offer some greater details about this period

[JesseMartin]

It's interesting to hear about the possibility of scandal, that helps frame things a lot better. I never knew about that until now. It makes a lot more sense why Hurley was so interested in the control of everything, including journalists and free speech and such. I didn't care much for him when I knew him, but knowing now what was going on at our alma mater when he took over, everything seems to fit better. There were definitely good and bad things that came out of his tenure, and though I'm not saying it should negate the problems, the fact that that level of control came out of a need to prevent scandal and embarrassment definitely seems sensible. I guess if you have to choose between somebody who's a bit hard-handed or another who may be a thief and/or an idiot, the stricter option would have to be the one to go with.