The coronavirus pandemic has created a set of historic challenges for leaders in higher education. They’ve had to respond to threats to college finances and enrollment; cut faculty, staff, programs, and sports teams; orchestrate the logistical burdens of testing for the virus; and house those infected — all while navigating the uncertainty of when and how this strange, often remote, era will end.
That might seem like enough to persuade an unusual number of college presidents to consider retiring. A number of the nation’s best-known leaders have announced their resignations this calendar year, including Mark P. Becker of Georgia State University, Michael A. McRobbie of Indiana University at Bloomington, and John Thrasher of Florida State University.
But overall, the number of campus and system presidents stepping down appears to be within the normal range. In fact, fewer presidents have announced their retirements in 2020 than in each of the previous two years, according to Chronicle data, and no retirements were announced between March 10 and May 1, according to the data. So anyone planning to step down may have put those plans on hold.
“If anything it’s caused some people not to step down because of their deep concern for their campus community,” said Barbara R. Snyder president of the Association of American Universities since February.
As of early November, 69 presidents have announced their retirements in 2020, and just 46 of those happened after mid-March, when fear of the coronavirus caused nearly every college to close or restrict attendance on its campus. In 2019, resignations were announced by 123 presidents; 80 did so in 2018. The data include only the retirements and resignations that ran in The Chronicle’s Gazette. The figures exclude presidents who were forced to resign, left under a cloud of controversy, or cited health concerns in stepping down.
Many of those who are retiring this year are finishing up lengthy careers in leadership, and finding this a natural time for a change. McRobbie, for example, has led Indiana for 14 years and is stepping down after the university celebrated the 200th anniversary of its founding, in January. Becker, too, has spent more than a decade as president at Georgia State.
While the pandemic might not have been the stated reason for many of those who did decide to step aside this year, it has had an impact on campus leadership. “If I’d seen it coming I might have retired a year earlier,” joked Michael K. Young, president of Texas A&M, who will be leaving his post at the end of December, despite an earlier plan to finish the academic year.
Quitting now kind of undermines that president-as-leader narrative.
Young said he has already spent a quarter of a century as either a dean or college president and is ready to rejoin the faculty of the law school, and to oversee the university’s Institute for Religious Liberties and International Affairs. But the pandemic has been a far different challenge from any other during his career, he said, because it affects so many parts of the institution, and he sees no definite end until the coronavirus can be controlled.
“It’s been riveting,” he said.
For others, however, the pandemic played a significant role in their decision. Jane K. Fernandes, former president of Guilford College, said in an email that she had been thinking about retiring for at least a year before she announced it in June. The effects of the coronavirus made her decision clear, she said. She left her position in July to return to the faculty.
“As Covid-19 took its toll, and I saw an alternate reality for higher education unfolding before my eyes, I discerned that it was time for me to step away and allow a new leader to join the Guilford community,” Fernandes wrote.
The Case for Continuity
Search consultants say they are seeing a somewhat different trend. Roderick J. McDavis, managing principal at AGB Search, said the number of searches his firm is conducting is “a tad higher” than normal because some presidents who had announced their resignations in 2019 chose to stay longer. The firm is now opening searches for that group, as well as for the new group of presidents who have newly announced their retirements in 2020, he said.
Anne Coyle, a consultant with the search firm Russell Reynolds Associates, said a larger group of presidents may be set to announce their retirements as early as December, with plans to leave their posts in the spring of 2022.
But scholars who study higher-education leadership say they aren’t surprised that the number of announced resignations has not skyrocketed since March, as might be expected given the pressures of a global crisis.
“A lot of presidents feel their institution is embattled right now,” said Brendan Cantwell, an associate professor of educational administration at Michigan State University. “Presidents and boards very likely feel that the crisis requires continuity.”
“The sort of real-time decision making needed in the pandemic means that leaders rely on established relationships, communication channels, and go-to implementation strategies to get things done,” Cantwell said.
But much or all of that can be disrupted during a leadership change, he said, as other senior members of the cabinet leave, new relationships are required, and the new president installs a new team.
A presidential search also can cost a significant amount of money, Cantwell said, which can be difficult to justify when the institution is struggling financially and making deep budget cuts.
Personal pride may also be at stake, he said. “Presidents present themselves as people who can get things done. They get a high salary because they have what it takes to lead the campus through hard times into a better future. Quitting now kind of undermines that president-as-leader narrative.”
Felecia Commodore, an assistant professor of educational foundations and leadership at Old Dominion University, echoed the idea that presidents are sensitive to looking weak during a crisis. “Many leaders don’t want to look like the captain who decided to jump ship,” she said.
And it’s not just internal disruptions that a college is worried about, she said. A turnover in leadership could signal instability to the wider public and even affect enrollment. “Anything that would make a college look unstable would concern leadership,” she said.
But it’s too soon to say that the pandemic won’t eventually take a toll on the ranks of college leaders, she said. Two big trends could emerge after Covid-19 that will lead to a much larger rate of turnover, she said. The first is burnout from leading through a prolonged crisis.
In addition, many governing boards that are not entirely happy with their leadership but reluctant to undertake a search are waiting for a more stable environment, Commodore said. How a president handles the current crisis will very likely be a factor in many of those decisions, she added.
The coronavirus has also created a new set of expectations for incoming leaders, she said. After the 2008-9 recession, presidents were expected to have a better understanding of the financial markets and higher-education business models.
Now, they will be required to know much more about managing a public-health emergency, she said.
“Scholars have been trying to tell us that most of our colleges are not prepared for a massive crisis,” she said. “This now is going to be a benchmark.”
Audrey Williams June contributed to this article.
