The rapidly changing fiscal and technological landscape of higher education is likely to undermine the hopes of some academics who aspire to be college presidents, despite today’s abundance of opportunities and the prospects of more to come.
The traditional academic achievements yardstick for measuring a candidate’s potential as a president are being redefined by changing fiscal realities, increasingly activist trustees and other stakeholders, and the loss of privacy, say veteran educators, current presidents, mentors and recruiters.
“In all my years in higher education, the pressure and demands of presidents are greater than I’ve ever seen,” said Gladys Styles Johnston, veteran educator and director of the Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI), a presidential grooming program that is part of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).
“There is a great demand for change, not business as usual,” said Johnston, echoing the sentiments of others as they painted the current landscape for aspiring presidents.
Hampton University President Dr. William Harvey, who runs “On the Road to the Presidency,” a program for aspiring presidents, said the traditional “ideal” candidate is less likely to be at the top of many lists today.
“I’m not recasting what we’ve done,” said Harvey, whose last program drew some 85 leadership aspirants for three days of frank discussions about budgets, fundraising, legal issues and community engagement. “I think it is being recast,” he added.
“No longer are you seeing people who’ve written 10 books,” said Harvey, referring to an era when academic achievement highlighted by a portfolio of published works boosted a candidate’s prospects. “That’s all well and good. But, you’ve got to have managers, leaders. The old notion of a stodgy, pipe-smoking professor is over. It’s unlikely an outstanding professor who has written 10 books has the wherewithal to be a president.”
