What does the election mean for higher education?
For University of Missouri, it means a Tiger in the governor’s mansion. Missouri’s new governor-elect, Jay Nixon, earned both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Mizzou.
Nixon is in good company. Seven other Mizzou alumni have served as governor of Missouri: James T. Blair, Jr., Mel Carnahan, John M. Dalton, Forrest C. Donnell, Warren E. Hearnes, Guy B. Park and Roger B. Wilson.
Nixon’s gubernatorial-race opponent, Kenny Hulshof, also graduated from Mizzou.
At the national level, the White House soon will see unprecedented professional higher-education experience. President-Elect Barack Obama, Vice President-Elect Joe Biden and both of their spouses all have worked in higher education.
Barack Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. His wife, Michelle Obama, has worked in the administration there and has served as vice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals.
Joe Biden has taught as an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law for 17 years. His wife, Jill Biden, is an English instructor at Delaware Technical and Community College’s Stanton-Wilmington campus.
Read more about the incoming administration’s ties to — and plans for — higher education in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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