Another year for Nancy Zimpher

UC's board extended President Nancy Zimpher's contract for an extra year on Tuesday, which we hope keeps her happy enough to ignore possible opportunities elsewhere. Mark Dantonio left the head football coaching job at UC to jump to the Big 10 at Michigan State. People at the Clifton campus couldn't help but notice a Big 10 presidency is about to open at Ohio State.

Zimpher has made changes at UC that go far beyond bouncing Bob Huggins. She is pushing the school to see itself, and to be seen by others, as something other than a commuter school with a couple of good programs and a basketball team.

Her UC/21 program established the goals for a 21st-century university. The focus is now on students -- attracting better ones and providing them with top-level programs in all disciplines through innovative partnerships in the business community and research opportunities on campus.

“With every day, our degrees are becoming more valuable,” student trustee Nick Furtwengler said at Tuesday's meeting of the board. That's the highest recognition a university can achieve and one that certainly deserved the recognition of the contract extension.