Last week in Washington, senior higher education administrators considering taking the next step in their careers gathered for ACE’s final Advancing to the Presidency workshop.
Participants explored various perspectives on presidential leadership, gained insights into the current state of the American college presidency, and examined issues in higher education through a presidential lens. In this highly interactive workshop, participants received constructive feedback from search consultants and other participants on their self-presentation style, professional résumés and cover letters, and engage in a mock interview.
Presidents, past presidents, and search consultants served as panelists to present their perspectives and offer advice, which included recognizing the difference between how public and private institutions are governed and utilizing a lawyer when negotiating their presidential contracts.
What keeps these presidents up at night? Finances—with state budget cutbacks and declining enrollments, they advised, participants should educate themselves in higher education finance before assuming a presidency.
Another major concern is students and the issues they face daily, like food insecurity, mental health, and having nowhere to go during winter break.
A panel of search consultants discussed the presidential search process and how to best prepare for it. They focused on four time periods—before the search, the application process, the interview process, and after the offer—and gave invaluable advice to the participants as they consider their next steps in seeking a presidency.
The group met just days after ACE Leadership announced that it will transform its current suite of leadership development programs into a series of regional summits and initiate a robust peer-to-peer online platform and virtual library of content.
While there will be no future Advancing to the Presidency workshops, ACE will integrate vital lessons learned from this and other ending Leadership programs into its new programming. The ACE Fellows Program, Moving the Needle Initiative, and ACE Women’s Network will remain three cornerstones of ACE Leadership, and support for these efforts will be enhanced through the redesign.