The College President as Beer-from-a-Keg-to-a-Student’s Mouth Dispenser

Now that’s a clump of words I never thought I would be writing.  But, Robert Paxton, 52, president of Iowa Central Community College, had a rollicking time on a Fourth of July boating outing on West Okojobi Lake.  He was photographed holding a keg over the mouth of a bikini-clad young woman (young is the operative word) as another in the photograph is shown dispensing vodka in similar fashion.  So many lessons, such limited space.  Let’s take it one fallacy at a time.  President Paxton explained, “It’s my own private life.”  Ah, the justifications of the morally schizophrenic.  The theory that we can frolic with those less than half our age as alcohol flows but still possess the judgment and leadership it takes to run an institution of higher ed is claptrap.  Bad judgment is bad judgment.A man who cannot understand that discretion is the greater part of leadership has not studied history or management.  We are not different people who turn switches off and on so that we move seamlessly from toga parties to tuition discussions with great aplomb.  Even if we could, we do lose credibility when our personal lives carry a fragrance of fraternity keggers.

Alcohol consumption, with its excesses and abuse, is a danger on college campuses.  A president who participates with the kiddos in guzzling may not have the moral authority to guide them along on responsible consumption. 

Ah, but some Iowans have responded that the young people in the photo were all of legal drinking age.  This facile response means only that President Paxton did not break the law.  Propriety is inherent in every leader’s job description.  The law was never intended to be the maximum standard of behavior.  The law is the minimum standard of behavior, and we are permitted to do less than the law allows and more than it requires.  Legal age or not, a president partying with young ‘uns shaves the treetops on that line between law and ethics.

Oh, but President Paxton argues, the keg was not working.  The functionality of the keg a president is holding over the mouth of a young woman in a bikini is hardly relevant to the question of judgment.  The man is partying with twentysomethings — what is wrong with this picture?

Finally, others indict the cell phone owner who snapped the picture for catching the president when he didn’t know the cameras were rolling.  Wasn’t one of the old sayings about character and ethics is that both are determined by how we behave when no one is looking?  Ironic that technology has given us a mandatory conscience.  Assume that someone has the video camera rolling even as the cell phone is snapping stills.  Gauge your behavior accordingly.  Better yet, ask yourself, “If what I am doing appeared in a photo on the front page of the newspaper, would I be embarrassed?” 

Therein lies the problem with this age of fame and YouTube.  In this kegger caper, President Paxton doesn’t seem particularly concerned. Worse, those to whom he is accountable are not particularly concerned either, to wit: “So we have a president who parties with the students — who cares?”  In fact, after being satisifed on the legal drinking age question, a member of the college’s board of trustees said, “I’m not aware of anything the college needs to do – or should do.” 

Oh for leaders who understand that behavior boundaries are not bad things, even in our personal lives.  We worry about ethics and propriety not so we go through the exercise of passing judgment or condemning others.  We worry about ethics and propriety because we want to be better people.  I just can’t see how being the guy holding the keg for the kids gets the kids, the president, or the college to a higher grade of better.

I am grateful to Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register for his coverage of this case as well as his helpful questions about the conduct and the issues.