Is College President ‘the Toughest Job in the Nation’?

At a meeting of the University of Texas system’s board on Tuesday, the departing chancellor, William H. McRaven, made a striking comment about his latest gig. “The toughest job in the nation is the one of an academic- or health-institution president,” he said.

McRaven, a former military commander who planned the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, announced in December that he would leave the chancellorship after only three years. He cited health issues in the decision, but he had previously signaled that he might stay longer if the system’s governing board wanted him to.

Coming from McRaven, an outsider to the academy, the stark assessment of his soon-to-be-former job has a ring of authenticity. It’d be hard to verify the claim, but we do know a few things about what makes the job so difficult. Here are three bits of context:

1. The tenure of college presidents is getting shorter.

According to a 2017 survey conducted every five years by the American Council on Education, the average tenure for college leaders was 6.5 years in 2016, down from 8.5 years a decade before. That’s a signal of a harder job, said Jonathan S. Gagliardi, a co-author of a report on the survey, at the time. “That it has shortened does suggest a level of volatility that may not have been previously present,” he said.

What’s more, over half of the survey’s respondents said they planned to step down within five years.

2. What do college presidents worry about? Money.

The same ACE survey asked presidents about what, specifically, frustrated them. The top frustration among both public- and private-college leaders was the lack of financial resources. For leaders at public institutions, that may reflect the pressures that stem from state disinvestment in higher education. And for those at private colleges, it may speak to the growing strain on small colleges, especially in geographic areas with flat or declining enrollment trends.

The other four top frustrations were also consistent across public and private colleges. In no particular order: faculty resistance to change, lack of time to think and reflect, problems inherited from previous leadership, and the belief that presidents are infinitely accessible.

3. The last few years have probably made the job tougher.

In the last several years, college leaders have been compelled to respond to issues that would previously not have occupied as much of their time. The ubiquity of smartphones has made it easier for people on campuses to spread hateful messages that presidents are called on to denounce. The ascendance of conservative outlets like Campus Reform and the College Fix has drawn attention to classroom interactions — say, liberal remarks by a professor — that would have previously stayed in the classroom. The online rage that attends both of those developments can occupy a president’s time for days, especially when state lawmakers get involved.

Political divisiveness, as reflected on campuses, has also registered. An April study by ACE found that 70 percent of college presidents were partly or very concerned about possible violence on their campuses connected to the issues of free speech and inclusion. And 39 percent said they expected the tension between free speech and inclusion to get worse nationwide.

Andy Thomason is a senior editor at The Chronicle. Send him a tip at andy.thomason@chronicle.com. And follow him on Twitter @arthomason.