The results are in, and no one cares. Given the end of his incumbent's term, the next "The American College President" took office yesterday, replacing his 2006 predecessor. Not an actual person, this is rather the name of a demographic survey of college presidents which has now seen its seventh installment in 26 years; a needless update for the American Council on Education to make bank and the rest of us to make generalizations.
The survey, which included more than 1,660 college presidents, offers results which are by any measure uninteresting. The average age among these college presidents is 60.7, a hair of a loss since 2006, when the number was a wrinkle below 60. Since 2006, the percentage of college presidents with children jumped up .04 percent, and all in one night, we imagine. Significantly, the data explains its own insignificance. Given that college presidents said they had been in their current jobs for 7 years on average, it can be assumed many of them now were there in '06, and are still standing.
Other numbers, in categories of gender and ethnicity, indicate trends, or suggest them. But the important point is that every survey is given credit when the media studies higher education. In what The Chronicle of Higher Education calls "a troublingly stagnant portrait," Inside Higher Ed sees something different: While "in some ways [the 2012 survey] shows very little change from its last iteration ...other demographic data about today's crop of presidents leave the overpowering - and, to ACE President Molly Corbett Broad, the 'sobering' - impression that postsecondary institutions face a potentially sweeping turnover in their top jobs." The ACE has pointed to the increased age of presidents to suggest more retirements are imminent, but as we all know, it can be hard to get seniors up when they get comfortable.
Making such claims suggests the ACE could use being sobered. The group, which also publishes The Presidency magazine, "written for and by college and university presidents," surely had one survey too many. Hops and grain beside, there is something to be said for granularity: That studies need accurate data collected at tiny intervals to say something big. Fine, pick up the demographic tab, but don't vomit it back to us without gratuity.
Broad, the ACE president, commented on the survey of college presidents: "As students, faculty and staff become more diverse, we are reminded yet again about the importance of developing a more diverse pool of senior leaders - a task which remains one of ACE's top strategic priorities." As an example of corporate speak, this is golden, or maybe platinum or executive platinum. But why should this group of sharks feel it is a priority to be involved with the pool of college presidents? If anything, the selection of a college president should involve precisely the students, faculty and staff in question. And when coupled with the survey's fact that 60 percent of schools now use outside consultants to hire presidents - a 10-plus point increase since 2006 - such rhetoric is disheartening.
And so the influence continues down a one way road with administrators dictating to students, who take note, and evaluate only their professors. When talking about college presidents, though, maybe the corporate speak is applicable, as universities become more like businesses not from necessity but choice. At which point we students retire.
Read More
KURTZWEIL: Little sympathy for LittleJohn’s closure
By Paul Kurtzweil | 6 hours agoWith a new class of students arriving in August, Corner restaurants will face another test of their price discrimination and thus need to learn LittleJohn’s lesson quickly.
A statement by 401 concerned faculty regarding the crisis of President Ryan’s forced resignation
By Concerned Faculty | 22 hours agoWe call on the Board to collaborate closely with faculty in appointing an Interim President to guide the university through this perilous time.
Letters to the Editor: The resignation of University President Jim Ryan
2 days agoFollowing this resignation, The Cavalier Daily has received letters from the University community which provide various perspectives on what this moment means to them and to the University’s future.
