Table Of ContentDOCUMENT RESUME
ED 267 704
HE 019 188
AUTHOR Kerr, Clark; Gade, Marian L.
TITLE The Many Lives of Academic Presidents: Time, Place,
and Character.
INSTITUTION Association of Governing Boards of Universities and
Colleges, Washington, D.C.
SPONS AGENCY Carnegie Corp. of New York, N.Y.
PUB DATE 86
NOTE 267p.
AVAILABLE FROM Association of Governing Boards of Universities &
Colleges, One Dupont Circle, Suite 400, Washington,
DC 20036 ($22.00 member; $26.00 non-member).
PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141)
RDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS *Administrator Characteristics; *Administrator
Responsibility; Administrator Selection; College
Administration; *College Environment; *College
Presidents; Government School Relationship; Higher
Education; Institutional Characteristics;
Interprofessional Relationship; *Leadership Styles;
Models
IDENTIFIERS Search Committees
ABSTRACT
The American college presidency is examined, with
attention to characteristics of those who become college presidents,
how long they serve and where they go after leaving the presidency,
and internal/external factors affecting their performance. The
analysis is based in part on 800 interviews with presidents, their
spouses, and other close associates that were undertaken for a 1984
report, "Presidents Make A Difference: Strengthening Leadership in
Colleges and Universities." Brief notes on 24 college presidents
illustrate the diversity of these leaders. Reasons presidents give
for seeking/accepting and refusing presidencies are identified. The
book also considers: experiences of new presidents; similarities
between college presidents and corporate ext'utives; general
responsibilities of the executive group and board and core
responsibilities of the president; skills required of the president;
strategies and styles employed by presidents; historical trends
affecting the presidency; external influences such as public
regulation; internal influences such as student and staff input; four
presidential models; and the context of 11 types of institutions.
Appended materials include: advice offered '31, 16 presidents,
attributes considered by presidential search committees, and a
nine-page annotated bibliography. (SW)
***********************************************************************
*
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *
*
from the original document. *
***********************************************************************
THE MANY LIVES
OF ACADEMIC PRESIDENTS
Time, Place & Character
by Clark Kerr and Marian L. Gade
Funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York
Association of Governing Boards
of Universities and Colleges
Wa,hington, D.C.
3
Copyright 1986
By the Association of Governing Boards
of Universities and Colleges
One Dupont Circle, Suite 400
V ashington, D.C. 20036
202/296 -8400
Printed in the United States of America
To Ted Hesburgh, who has done more both on campus and
off, and done it better, than anyone else.
To David Riesman, who knows more about higher education,
and shares it more willingly, than anyone else.
To all those we interviewed who trusted our discretion with
their confidential views so that others might learn.
I-
d
one of the great functions of leaders is to help a society to
achieve the best that is in it
John Gardner
Excellence
Old people are fond of giving good advice, it consoles them
for no longer being capable of setting a bad example.
Francois. Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Maxims
Contents
The Many
Lives of Academic
Presidents
111111M1111
vitt
Foreword xi
Preface . . . . xiii
Observations by David Riesman . . . xvii
Presidents and Presidencies
1 The 10,000All Different 3
2. Why They Serve, Whence They Come,
and Whither They Go . . . 15
3. OrientationWhat the New president Learns .. . 27
4 The Presidency. Unique, Satisfying, Vulnerable ... 37
Strategies, Choices, and Coercions
5 Defining Roles, Adjusting Skills, and Protecting Self .. 51
6 Leaders Managers, Survivors, Scapegoats . .. .. . . 67
Changing Times and Changing Environments
Historical Contexts . 81
8 External Environments . ... 97
9 Internal Environments . 105
Power and Influence
10 The President at the Center of Power
The Hierarchical Model with Administrative Authority
and Personal Responsibility 125
7
IN=1M
ix
11 The President as the Center of influence
The Collegial Consensus Model
and Shared Governance 133
12 The President as One Center of Power and Influence
The Polycentric Model and Political Coalitions . . . . .141
13 The President With Limited Power or Influence
(A) The "Organized Anarchy" Model or (B) Atomistic
Decision-Making in a Shared Environment . . .149
Different Places
14 Institutional Contexts and Presidendes . 161
Implications
15 Policies and Tactics of Trustees and Presidents _175
Appendixes
Appendix A. The Wisdom of the Profession, or,
What Presidents Have Learned . . . . .185
Appendix B. Looking for the Idea! in Presidents
ai.0 Spouses 229
Appendix C. Selected Annotated Bibliography on
Governance of Higher Education 237
Index . . ................ ....... ....257
8
Foreword
M=111=
xi
When AGB established the National Commission on Strength-
ening Presidential Leadership in 1982, we knew the subject of academic
presidencies was worth looking into. But we weren't sure what we
would find.
After thousands of hours of interviews, investigation, and ana-
lyses, the national commissiona group of distinguished educators,
presidents and chancellors and their spouses, legislators, 2ssociation
executives, and trusteesissued Presidents Make A Difference.
ctrengthening Leadership in Colleges and Universities. In that 1984
report, the commission and its director, Clark Kerr, concluded Lhat
the college presidency is in trouble The book made a number of recom-
mendations for governing board members to help strengthen the posi-
tion overall and help presidents cope with the job's many demands.
But Presidents Make A Difference did more than recommend;
1t refocused public attention on one of the most visible but least-
understood roles in contemporary society For too long, college presi-
dents have been taken for granted. For too long, their contributions
have gone unappreciated.
In this new volume, Clark Kerr and Marian L. Gade have taken
on the greater task of analyzing the state of the American college
presidency and the many forces acting upon it and within it. This book
is based in large part on the frontline investigative legwork done for
Presidents Make A Difference, but the heart of The Many Lives of Aca-
demic Presidents comes from Kerr's and Gade's own unique insights
into the history of higher education here and abroad, the trends shap-
ing presidential conduct, plus the underlying factors influencing
boardroom decision making.
AGB is proud to publish this work, which we believe will
become a landmark in the literature of higher education. As this book
a
makes clear, presidents run the gamut from saint to scapegoat in the
public eye. The pressures of the job and the constraints upon it are
greater than ever. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of
qualified people willing to rake on such tasks; but, as Kerr and Gade
point out, that situation may be changing rapidly and it's time to do
something about it.
In these pages, you will find that Kerr and Gade have done
their work well. The book examines what kinds of people with what
The Many kinds of backgrounds become college presidents, how long they serve
Lives of Academic
Presidents on the job and where they go after leaving it, and the internal and
MIIMIM external factors affecting their performance.
xii A special feature of this book is its extensive appendices,
detailed chapter notes, and annotated bibliography that stand as an
incomparable resource on presidents and presidencies. In no other
volume can be found s'ich a collection of anecdotes and examples
of effective leaders and lk adership styles culled from the writings of
this century's pathbreaking campus executives.
As Kerr and Gade know welland point out in this bookit
is often by dint of presence, ingenuity, and sheer survival skills that
today's presidents keep their institutions running smoothly and, occa-
sionally, on the course to greatness. College and university presidents
are a treasured national resource and deserve to be treated as such.
We all have reason to be grateful for their dedication and trustees have
the responsibility to recognize it.
The Many Lives of Academic Presidents and its predecessor
vo:ume are long-needed steps in that direction. We are grateful to the
Carnegie Corporation for its support in making these resources
poysible
Robeit L. Gale
President
Association of Governing Boards
of Universities and Colleges
10
Preface
This report is a sequel to Presidents Make A Difference:
Strengthening Leadership in Colleges and Universities (1984). That
reportbased on interviews with more than 800 presidents, former
presidents, spouses of presidents, and others associated with presi-
dents of colleges and universitiesconcentrated on operational deci-
sions that would aid in strengthening leadership in higher education
institutions.
This sequel draws on the same 800 interviews but also on other
materials including related studies. In contrast with the first report,
this volume concentrates on an analysis of the academic presidency
and of how its conduct is affected by changing times, by diverse
campus environments, and by the varying styles and strategies and
tactics of its incumbents. The central theme is that, to understand the
presidency, it is necessary to appreciate the context of each individual
presidencyto comprehend the tyrannies of time and of place, but
also to appreciate the vagaries of human behavior in approaching deci-
sions The theme is that there is no such thing as the presidency in
the singular, only presidencies in the plural; and no such thing as the
presidential type. Thus, this report elaborates "the diversity of the con-
texts within which presidencies are conducted," a concept the prior
report emphasized but did not describe in detail.
This second report does, nevertheless, supplement the first
report, when, at the end, it draws implications from this analysis for
the conduct of boards of trustees and of presidents (Chapter 15).
There are approximately 3,200 in5itutions of higher educa-
tion in the United States. Our study applies to about 2,400 of them.
We did not interview among the private two-year college group, and
there are about 300 such colleges; nor did we interview in special-
ized institutions, such as schools of theology, and there are more than
11
