The private-equity chief executive and entrepreneur, an outsider, was bringing in business and marketing ideas.

The Washington Post reports.

A liberal arts college pinned its hopes on a corporate leader, and a culture clash ensued

The former president of Mount St. Mary’s University said at an advisory board meeting that, in effect, liberal arts didn’t sell. The term just didn’t poll well with students, he said. The discipline needed a new name or a different approach to attract more students.

To some, it was a moment that encapsulated Simon Newman’s divisive tenure at the country’s second-oldest Catholic university: The private-equity chief executive and entrepreneur, an outsider, was bringing in business and marketing ideas and suggesting a new approach to an age-old enterprise. Some were open to the idea of rebranding liberal arts, but others were horrified.

“Would ‘homework’ poll well?” one colleague recalled asking, exasperated.