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Seminar Offers Guidance for New College Presidents

Judith McLaughlinEach summer HGSE's Programs in Professional Education (PPE) attracts many first-time college presidents to its Harvard Seminar for New Presidents (HSNP). This program seeks to address the specific needs and challenges that these new presidents may face in their inaugural years at their respective institutions. Forty-eight new presidents attended this summer's seminar.

Senior Lecturer and Director of the Higher Education Program Judith McLaughlin, has served as chair of the seminar from its beginning 17 years ago. McLaughlin discusses the difficulties of being a new college president and the tools that the program aims to provide to those who attend each summer.

Q: What is the actual role of a college president?

A. Many people believe presidents to be responsible for every decision on campus and, to be the solution to all the institution's problems. Yet, others assume they are figure-heads without any real authority. Neither extreme position is true. Although the president is the one individual to whom a board of trustees delegates executive responsibility for the leadership and management of the institution, the president's job as CEO is enormously complicated because of the expectation of shared governance--a sacred value in higher education. The number of players involved in governing American colleges and universities--is both what makes higher education strong and the job of president difficult.

Q: What are some of the most challenging issues facing new presidents?

A. New presidents must develop an understanding of the important strengths of their institution, its prospects and possibilities, and its constraints and problems before they can take serious leadership initiatives. But as they take the time necessary to learn about their institution, it is moving forward. Expectations are high for presidents to take action and solve problems. New presidents must find the right balance between knowing enough about the institution to make the right decisions and understanding the appropriate timing of making decisions.

Another significant challenge is securing the institution's financial position. Of course, funding relates to questions of marketing, admissions, budgeting, and fundraising. How can the institution position itself in a way that it continues to be viable?

Q: Have the increasing demands of fundraising changed the president's role?

A. The Chronicle of Higher Education commissioned a study last spring asking presidents about where they spend their time and what they see as their number one concern. Overall, presidents rated fundraising as their single greatest challenge. They are fully aware that their institutions need additional funding to grow (and in some cases, simply to survive) and as presidents, they are uniquely positioned to raise the largest gifts. Interesting, however, the presidents in the survey didn't consider fundraising their most important qualification for the job. Presumably, they recognized that while fundraising may require a substantial amount of their time, they can't be effective in this role unless they are seen as successful academic leaders and have a successful institution to "sell."

There's no question, though, that fundraising does require a substantial portion of the president's time. Depending on where their college or university is in its fundraising cycle--presidents will spend anywhere from 30 percent to 60 or 70 percent of their time on fundraising. Even presidents at the best-funded institutions can't escape this aspect of the job.

Q: The seminar claims to familiarize new presidents with the hazards of the job. What are those hazards?

A. Hazards can differ from person to person and institution to institution. One of the hazards is moving too fast, not knowing the institution well enough, and not appreciating its values, morals, and culture. During the search process, candidates are told about the things that people at the institution really want to see changed. But, of course, these wish lists of some are not a mandate of all, and even for those who desire the change, the reality of it may be quite different than they assumed. One hazard for new presidents is assuming that the messages told them during the search actually constitute a charge for action, without better understanding the reasons for the desired change, its supporters and detractors, and the difficulties and consequences of moving forward with it.

Another hazard would be not developing relationships with the important constituencies. Given the nature of shared governance, the coin of the realm for presidents is relationships. They can have superb ideas and excellent skills, but they will be unable to accomplish anything without the support of others inside and outside of their institution. To gain this support, they have to develop and nurture relationships --trustees, faculty, students, alumni, local political leaders, and so forth.

Another struggle for new presidents is finding some professional and personal balance. The presidency can be an overwhelming job, particularly in the first year when everybody wants to see the new president. For the new president, the challenge is determining which appointments, meetings, events, programs require the president's time and which can be delegated to others. And since the demands on the president's time are endless, the danger is ignoring one's own health or personal relationships outside of the job.

Q: What aspects of a presidency can be taught on a broad scale?

A. All presidents have to work successfully with boards of trustees, balance budgets, develop senior leadership teams, and think about articulating a vision. They have to do fundraising, think about how to deal with multiple constituencies, and manage the presidential calendar and life. Those are the sessions we provide during HSNP.

One of the strengths of the Harvard Seminar is having the opportunity for presidents to learn from institutions very different from their own and to meet people whom they wouldn't likely meet at a Washington association meeting or in the state department of education. However, since the dimensions of some tasks differ according to institutional size, mission, or control--for example, the challenges of institutional governance are different in a public institution or a private institution--in addition to our main sessions, we have break-out sessions and discussion groups where presidents from like institutions can discuss the lessons of the session for their own institutional context. In addition, we have opportunities for presidents to talk with our faculty members in small groups or individually.

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