As Higher Ed Landscape Changes, Are College Presidents Still Important?

Dive Brief:

  • Recent news of Harvard’s president Drew Faust stepping down has reignited a conversation on the presidency, and whether the changing higher education landscape even necessitates one individual at the top, writes former Northeastern University President and Commissioner of Higher Education for the State of Massachusetts Richard Freeland. 
  • While in the past, presidents primarily filled the roles of fundraisers, change-agents, and spokespersons, many experts say that increasingly tight budgets mean that presidents must act more like corporate managers with heightened revenue-making skills. 
  • But on other hand, the new profile of the university as being a more diverse space for thought, means the center of power could actually be with faculty, who are directly working with students — a reality, which means presidents must be have skills in persuasiveness and consensus building.  

Dive Insight:

A recent survey found presidents don’t see student affairs as a major part of the job, but it is perhaps the most important job a college president has today. As colleges become more diverse and filled with nontraditional, older students, executives on campus can no longer take a backseat role in making sure the campus is still welcoming and catering to the needs of all students, without risking being thrown into the limelight for not being enough of a leader.

The recent unrest in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia campus has seen the president called into question for her lax response to the incident. Similarly, at the University of Missouri, Timothy Wolfe, the president of the Missouri system during the 2015 protests, and R. Bowen Loftin, the school’s chancellor, were pushed to resign after not responding in a way deemed appropriate by the students after the events unfolded. 

However, as the landscape of higher education continues to evolve, presidents and other high-level leaders should continually evaluate what their positions mean and how they can leverage them to both support students and the business of the institutions. In conversation with Education Dive, University of North Carolina at Greensboro provost Dana Dunn offered some tips on how presidents could stay relevant in the eyes of students and their faculty, saying leaders can encourage talented faculty to enter administrative roles and commit to using the executive position to serve students. 

“I have a real passion for that space in education because I believe that it has the opportunity to change the lives, not just of the students, but the families, the communities,” she said. “So a passionate commitment, I think is the starting point for success … because we will make a difference in the world by helping these students live up to their aspirations and hopes.”

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