Most books on the college presidency are either autobiographies or prescriptions for success. We avoid autopsies, diagnoses of leadership collapses and college president resignations/terminations. Usually no one wants to ...]]>

Presidencies Derailed: Why University Leaders Fail and How to Prevent It; Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Gerald B. Kauvar, and E. Grady Bogue; The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2013.

Most books on the college presidency are either autobiographies or prescriptions for success. We avoid autopsies, diagnoses of leadership collapses and college president resignations/terminations. Usually no one wants to be the coroner or public health officer. This is too bad, because there are a few dozen serious presidential breakdowns each year.

This book summarizes 16 cases where the new president did not complete the initial contract, resigning or fired oftentimes by the second year. Two “derailed” presidents tell their side of the story, and there are three chapters on the lessons learned from administrative train wrecks.

The book delivers more than the subtitle promises, providing separate chapters with cases at community colleges, private liberal arts colleges, master’s degree universities and research universities. There is no one cause, but many instances of bad judgment by presidents and their boards, alienation of faculty or community leadership, and a few cases of overspending, inappropriate relationships, deception and ethical violations.

Trachtenberg knows the presidency. He was a dean and vice president for John Silber at Boston University, then president first of the University of Hartford and later of George Washington University (GW). He chairs the higher education search practice for Korn Ferry, and has written a candid article for NEJHE on the pitfalls facing search committees. This new volume repeats some of those useful insights. Gerald Kauvar has served as an assistant at GW and elsewhere. Grady Bogue has been chancellor of two southern universities. Several University of Tennessee doctoral students completed relevant analyses of short-term presidencies.

There were too many examples of difficulties created by corporate board members who favored top-down leadership in contrast to an open and participatory leadership style. To make a university “run like a business” runs the risk of sneering at shared governance, tenure and a strong role for faculty members and deans who provide the intellectual content that makes colleges and universities great. Those attitudes can be fatal for a college president.

The remedies include smaller search committees, carefully planned transitions and board support including annual evaluations of presidents, and the use of dashboards with the most important data displayed for all to see. This book should be read by presidential search committees and purchased by vice presidents worried about their president’s success. It provides great cases for discussion in higher education leadership programs. Higher education organizations in Washington D.C., especially the Association of Governing Boards, should recommend this book to members. Trachtenberg remains positive about trustees who share their wisdom and wealth and can be even more supportive of campus values and of new presidents.

Joseph M. Cronin is director of the college consulting company EDVISORS and former president of Bentley University.

“Few philosophers have shown much interest in examining the moral problems …” in academe, their own bailiwick, complains Steven Cahn, a philosopher and former president of The Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York (CUNY).

Cahn initiated a course in ...]]>

Moral Problems in Higher Education, Steven Cahn, editor, Temple University Press, 2011.

“Few philosophers have shown much interest in examining the moral problems …” in academe, their own bailiwick, complains Steven Cahn, a philosopher and former president of The Graduate School and University Center at the City University of New York (CUNY).

Cahn initiated a course in academic ethics at CUNY and is the author of the 1980s book called Saints and Scamps: Ethics in Academia.

His newer volume, Moral Problems in Higher Education, provides at least two points of view about major and recurring issues in higher education, including hate speech restrictions versus free speech, affirmative action in recruiting students and faculty, the ethical issues around sponsored research, peer review, letters of recommendation, institutional neutrality and university athletics. Cahn recruited more than a dozen philosophers and a few lawyers and former university presidents to offer alternative analyses on moral dilemmas.

The list of readings, some of them classics 20 or more years old, is designed for university courses in academic ethics or contemporary issues.

Education scholars Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom attempt to rebut Derek Bok and William Bowen’s argument that universities must make extra efforts to admit previously excluded and underenrolled racial and ethnic groups. The Thernstroms argue that this policy parallels the caps on Jews at selective ivy colleges decades ago and could jeopardize the opportunities for high-scoring Asian students who enroll in high numbers at California public universities today. How do universities expand opportunity and play fair with all qualified applicants?

University athletic programs on occasion fall victim to highly publicized betting and athlete recruiting scandals. Provoking thought are the arguments of Myles Brand, a philosopher and president of both the University of Oregon and Indiana University who went on to direct the NCAA. He contends that physical health, once celebrated by the Greeks, has been subordinated to the humanities including the fine arts. He would have universities treat athletic directors as deans and members of the president’s cabinet, and basketball treated with the cultural enthusiasm afforded ballet!  Universities provide “entertainment” in the form of concerts and plays, so why not respect football games as well?

Ours is an age where candor and transparency are honored. But are there limits? What about academic references? One chapter features an amazingly honest (mock) letter of recommendation for a doctoral student performing in the “third quartile” that might never become a great scholar but could probably be relied upon to meet classes. Philosophers can provoke us to discussing moral issues with humorous examples.

Universities, one philosopher contends, should be, but cannot be, completely “neutral”.  Over the past decades, they have contracted with the Department of Defense and pharmaceutical companies, allowed the CIA to recruit graduates on campus, and accepted funds from donors with questionable values and habits. Avoiding outright partisanship, how do colleges and universities find a moral compass to guide the turning down of gifts and contracts that might compromise the integrity and independence of the campus?

Study questions follow each chapter. This book would be useful for courses in higher education leadership or new president seminars offered by collegiate associations and schools of education. We yearn for morality in public life, and need more discussion of the moral issues facing higher education.

Joseph M. Cronin is former president of Bentley University.