“Some people think that a college president’s life is full of joys and a host of friends. I know that he frequently walks in sorrow and alone because of the times he must do what seems impossible.” Paul V. Sangren (1948) “What a President Learns” Journal of Higher Education, 19, 6, 287-288.
Well, my university is looking for a new President and Vice-Chancellor and the process of consultation has begun in terms of establishing what opportunities, issues and challenges awaits the new President as well as what characteristics and experience they should possess. A search company has been selected so if you are interested feel free to contact Laverne Smith and Associates Inc. at LakeheadPresident@lavernesmith.com. In the interim, a few thoughts come to mind about what being a university president might entail these days.
In many respects, not much has changed over the years if Paul Sangren’s quote above is taken into consideration. Being a university president then or now has always been a challenge given the complexity of academic institutions. In many respects, universities are federations with complex relationships and negotiations between semi-autonomous and diverse faculties and indeed faculty members. Add to that the need to maintain enrollment and revenues in an era of declining domestic enrollment and ever rising costs suggests one can imagine that “walks in sorrow and alone” will be a daily feature of the workday.
Having read a few accounts years ago written by university presidents such as Giamatti’s A Free and Ordered Space, Kennedy’s Academic Duty or Rosovsky’s The University: An Owners Manual probably does little to prepare you for the job of running what are largely government funded Canadian universities these days. Reading accounts by the former president of Harvard or Stanford is certainly a perspective from a different league from what might face the president of a Lakehead, Brock or even somewhat larger place like Carleton or Guelph. Still, there are parallels.
Many people I talk to in my community think the role of a university president these days is to run the university – to be the boss and tell people what to do – so to speak. I guess living in a town that still has a strong pulp mill and grain elevator legacy is an environment that generates such expectations of a top job. However, I think the job of a university president these days is not really to “run” the university – universities tend to run themselves though not always very well. Day to day management is usually the preserve of Vice Presidents Academic and Administration though in the end the President signs off on everything making the choice of your vice-presidents very important.
So what do I think a university president should do? Well, three things that any university search committee would be well advised to consider.
First, the university president is the public face of the university both within and outside the university and they are the cheerleader in chief. A university president at the drop of a hat must be able to clearly articulate a vision of what their university does and why you should be there. Good public speaking skills certainly would not hurt in this regard. A team effort in building and selling a vision is also paramount.
Second, the university president in the end accomplishes great things only if there is money available and so fund-raising is their chief responsibility and activity. True, you can try to get things done by merely re-allocating resources or making cuts to free up money but it will increase the amount of time a President spends “walking alone.” Being in a large urban center with lots of corporate fund raising opportunities is a big help in this regard.
Finally, the President is diplomat in chief. True, this third function is closely tied to the previous two but in my mind it is still separate. A president must make the time to go to a lot of meetings both big and small and with a variety of diverse stakeholders both inside and outside the university. It is a never-ending task eternal (to borrow a bit from Carleton’s motto).
Being able to do these three things does not necessarily mean a president should be recruited with previous university administrative experience. It also does not even mean they need to be an academic. Search committees in the end need to be open minded in selecting the best person to do what I consider a President should be doing. On the other hand, if you want to hire a micro-manager then you probably should get one with an academic background and with prior university administrative experience garnered through years of ladder climbing.
So good luck to my university’s presidential search committee and all the others that will be convened this year – there are three searches I am aware of just in northern Ontario alone. Its a big job.
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Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Thanks for a nice thoughtful post.
With respect to your point on background,John Deutsch at Queen’s, one of the two best Presidents I encountered, came directly from the Economic Council and had spent most of his career in government.
The other, Bill Saywell at SFU, was a great cheerleader who raised SFU’s image of itself within the university and outside.
John
Should have added “good luck with your search.”
John
Thanks for the comments John. I know John Deutsch was the first chairman of the Economic Council of Canada. I am not as familiar with Bill Saywell – I think he was a historian but for some reason I thought he was also at York as there was a Saywell there who was a historian.
There were two Saywell brothers. Jack was a historian and a founder of York. Bill was a historian of China at U of T.
“A university president at the drop of a hat must be able to clearly articulate a vision…”
Maybe, but it needs to be a vision which the members of the university subscribe to. Simon Fraser University’s president — Andrew Petter — has a vision for SFU, and it’s all about being “engaged”; our students are “engaged”, faculty are encouraged to be “community engaged” with their research, et cetera. What does it all mean? Nobody seems to know exactly… but the presidents’ frequent use of the words “engaged”, “engagement”, and “community” has turned into a drinking game.