Dive Brief:
- Though the traditional academic pathway to the presidency is largely still the same — tenure track to dean to provost or vice president and onward — a greater number of presidents today have actually skipped the vice presidency point altogether, and some are coming in from outside of academia, reports Jason Lane for the Boston Business Journal.
- The combination of a shorter pathway to presidency, a faster rate of presidential turnover, and greater numbers of presidents reaching retirement age, means that the profile of the position is also becoming a lot younger and opening an opportunity for more diverse people to step in.
- As students entering college campuses demand greater attention to issues like free speech, race and gender and socioeconomic inclusivity, and technological integration, the role of the president can no longer be one of distant observation. As increasingly younger presidents with diverse backgrounds enter the position through a shortened pipeline, higher education in general may finally see a trickle down of presidents, deans, and provosts that are more attuned to their students' desires.
Dive Insight:
A string of campus protests and vocal demands from students on free speech have highlighted that the role of college executives can no longer be just overarching. Increasingly, presidents must show that they are involved in campus life and are working with the student body to create an inclusive campus. Jason Lane, the Executive Director of SUNY's Strategic, Academic, and Innovative Leadership (SAIL) Institute, wrote for the Boston Business journal that today's college president, who is still predominately an older white male, is seen as the distant "mayor, city manageer, CEO, and fundraiser," but this model doesn't work anymore.
As the student pool becomes more diverse and the social character of college generally changes, with increased political activity from the student body, college presidents must navigate the changing role of their position. Students are looking for a greater role from executives in a way that shows forward-thinking, responsive, and meaningful action; the model of tacitly observing student grievances and somewhat acknowledging them is not going to work anymore. Lane posits that as the age of the president becomes younger, as turnover increases with a shortened pathway, there's potential for more empathetic and thoughtful leaders to enter the position. In Ohio, for instance, ten of the presidents in public colleges were hired in the last three years. And for this reason, the state boasts the most diversity in the presidency position in the nation, with five women, a black man, an Indian man, and white men under the age of 46. Lane explains that the trend is not only an opportunity for the presidency role to change, but also the general attitude of executive-student relationship to change as well.