New Pres Takes Scenic Route to Univ of Texas

By John Nolan

According to F. Scott Fitzgerald, “there are no second acts in American lives.” However, the résumé of James D. Spaniolo, the recently appointed President of the University of Texas at Arlington, tells a different story. In a career spanning more that 35 years, Spaniolo worked in the fields of law and journalism before embarking on his current career path in education.

Spaniolo’s career began in 1968, when he received a BA in Political Science from Michigan State University. His first job, according to his résumé, was as the Public Information Officer (from 1969 to 1970) for the Governor’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice in Lansing, Michigan. However, a series of calls to the current Governor’s office did not yield confirmation of this position, and a voice mail message left for Teresa Hart of the Executive Office did not receive a response.

From there, Spaniolo returned to his alma mater, where he served as Assistant to the President from 1970 to 1972. As with the previous position, this could not be verified, due to the length of time that had passed since he held the position. Apparently, the Human Resources department at MSU does not maintain thirty years’ worth of records. Or perhaps those who were spoken to simply did not feel like looking for the information.

1975 marked the beginning of a new phase (Fitzgerald’s non-existent second act?) in the life of James Spaniolo. On May 3, he received his MPA in Public Administration from the University of Michigan, and on August 17, he earned his JD from the University of Michigan Law School. The Registrar’s Offices of the awarding institutions verified both of these degrees and dates. Armed with his new degrees, Spaniolo (according to his résumé) began his practice as an attorney with the law firm of Paul & Thomson, in Miami, Florida, from 1975 to 1977.

However, attempts to verify this piece of information were unsuccessful. Searches of the American Bar Association’s website, Yellow Pages.com, White Pages.com, and Verizon’s online telephone directory did not yield a single listing for a law firm by the name of Paul & Thomson. Further searches of lawyers with the last names of Paul and Thomson yielded numerous results. Sifting through the more manageable list of ‘Pauls’ led to an attorney named Dan Paul of the law firm, Jorden Burt. Paul’s listing on the Jorden Burt website noted that he specializes in First Amendment and libel cases. Coincidentally, this was Spaniolo’s area of specialization while at Paul & Thomson. Unfortunately, attempts to verify if Paul was indeed the ‘Paul’ of Paul & Thomson failed, as Paul did not respond to inquiries on the subject.

Yet another stage of Spaniolo’s career began when he left the law firm and went to work for the Miami Herald. From 1977 to 1985, he held a variety of positions with the newspaper, starting out as a legal consultant for the newspaper, and then in 1983, participating in Knight-Ridder’s (owner of the Miami Herald) executive development program, in order to “obtain ‘hands on’ experience in all phases of newspaper management and operations.” Once again, attempts to verify this information were unsuccessful. E-mails sent to both Knight-Ridder’s and the Miami Herald’s Human Resources departments were not answered, nor were voice mail messages left with the same departments. Interestingly, the lack of cooperation of the Miami Herald coincided with a website in which contact information was difficult to find.

1985 marked a return to Michigan for James Spaniolo, when he accepted the position of Vice President of Human Resources at the Detroit Free Press, also owned by Knight-Ridder. An e-mail sent to Administrative Manager Grace Bennett was promptly forwarded to Kirstin Starkey, who responded with a confirmation of Spaniolo’s employment with the newspaper. She noted that she had to rely on verbal confirmation from others in the office, as their databases did not go back to 1985.

After spending four years in this position, James Spaniolo returned to Miami, Florida, where he began a seven-year run as the Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. As with the inquiries to the Detroit Free Press, an inquiry regarding Spaniolo’s employment with this organization was promptly handled, in this case, by Lynne Noble of the Human Resources department.

Seemingly, the lure of his alma mater was too great for him to resist. In 1996, Spaniolo once again returned to MSU, this time as a Professor in the School of Journalism and as Dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Administrative assistants Raye Grill and Angela Williams quickly confirmed both of these positions. During this period, Spaniolo also served on the Boards of Directors for several MSU organizations, including the Alumni Association, the University Club, and the State News, and independent student daily newspaper. Additionally, he served as the Chairperson on the Media Board for Ready to Succeed, a child advocacy program in Michigan. While all of these positions were confirmed with representatives of their respective organizations, it should be noted that Spaniolo lists them as current professional and civic activities. Actually, he does not hold any of these positions now that he is no longer working for MSU.

During his tenure at MSU, Spaniolo also managed to find time to write. The Detroit Free Press published two of his op-ed pieces (on February 1, 2001 and October 29, 2001), while the November-December 2002 issue of The American Editor published his article entitled, “The Solemn Obligation of Being Deputized.” All three of these credits, as listed on his résumé, were confirmed through searches of the publications’ online databases. On top of everything else, in 2001, Spaniolo was awarded the Scoffes Award for “[demonstrating] a sustained commitment to the academic success of the MSU football program.”

With eight years of impressive accomplishments under his belt, James Spaniolo left MSU again, to accept the position of President at the University of Texas at Arlington. He assumed office on February 1, 2004, thereby beginning yet another phase in his life and career.