Do Businesspeople Make Good University Presidents?

Last week, the Board of Regents for Iowa's higher-education system announced the hiring of J. Bruce Harreld, a business consultant who lives near Vail, as the new president of the University of Iowa. During its search, the board, an appointed body, had interviewed notable candidates from the field of higher education, like the president of Oberlin and the provosts of Tulane and Ohio State, but in the end, they landed on Harreld, who isn't well known in academic circles--or anywhere else, really....