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How Boards Go Wrong—And Right: Observations on the Search and Selection of College Presidents

By Rebecca A. Denton and John E. Moore, Jr.

There is an old saw that college boards of trustees should always have two items of business on their agenda. The first is the question of whether the board has confidence in the president, and if the answer is yes, the second item involves how the board can advance the president's program. If, however, the answer to the first question is no, the second item is the selection of a chair for a presidential search.

Although there is a good bit of hyperbole in this old saw, there is also valid affirmation of one of the most important responsibilities of an institution's governing board: Hiring and evaluating a president is absolutely crucial to a college's—and a board's—success. Effective leadership is a much prized commodity, and the leadership challenges for presidents of colleges and universities have many dimensions.

The late Clark Kerr, president and architect of the University of California system, wrote with insight about the role and expectations of the university president:

The university president in the United States is expected to be a friend of the students, a colleague of the faculty, a good fellow with the alumni, a sound administrator with the trustees, a good speaker with the public, an astute bargainer with the foundations and federal agencies, a politician with the state legislature, a friend of industry, labor, and agriculture, a persuasive diplomat with the donors, a champion of general education, a supporter of the professions (particularly law and medicine), a spokesperson to the press, a scholar in his own right, a public servant at the state and national levels, a devotee of opera and football equally, a decent human being, a good husband and father, and an active member of a church. Above all, he must enjoy traveling in airplanes, eating his meals in public, and attending public ceremonies. No one can be all of these things. Some succeed at being none.

When a board must select a new president, it is challenging to find someone who comes as close as possible to fulfilling this multidimensional role. This challenge occurs with some regularity inasmuch as about one out of seven boards of trustees is involved in a presidential search each year. The good news is that more often than not, boards undertake this strategic task in a conscientious, deliberate, and systematic way, increasingly relying on the assistance of search firms and ultimately finding new presidents who prove to be successful. . . .

Excerpted from the fall 2009 issue of The Presidency. To subscribe to the magazine, please call (301) 632-6757, or order online through ACE's bookstore.