What’s on the Mind of the Private-College President? 3 Insights From a New Report

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About half of the leaders of small and midsize private colleges say they intend to leave their current posts within the next five years, and with an average age of 61, a healthy number of those departures could be retirements. Is there reason to fear a looming hole in leadership? Perhaps. But some presidents say they see instead an opportunity to make the colleges more representative of the student bodies they serve.

In fact, issues of representation and race are rising priorities for many private-college leaders, according to a new report from the Council of Independent Colleges. Nearly three in five college presidents believe the campus racial climate is a greater concern than in years past. Meanwhile, two in five find their state’s political climate to be hostile to higher education.

The council analyzed data from a 2016 study by the American Council on Education for the report, “The Independent College Presidency 1986-2016.” The new report paints a portrait of who private-college leaders are (on average: married white males), what dominates their time (finances and fund raising), and what they arrived in office unprepared to do (plan for technology and assess student learning). Here are three key takeaways from the report.

Growing Concern About Race and Diversity

About 60 percent of the presidents studied by the council reported that the racial climate on their campus was a greater worry in 2016 than it was just three years earlier. Moreover, a majority of leaders found it “important” or “very important” to declare racial and gender equality as “important college values.”

But the report suggests that there may be a disconnect between what’s being said and what’s being done.

On the one hand, the private-college presidency is becoming more diverse. Eleven percent of the presidents identified themselves as minorities. That’s an increase from 5 percent in 2011. But it still lags behind the proportion at public institutions by at least nine percentage points.

Meanwhile, gender diversity among independent-college leaders is also on the rise. In 1986, 17 percent of the presidents were women; by 2016 that number had risen to 30 percent. That’s a substantial gain, but the presidency is not yet reflective of the student body: 57 percent of all undergraduates in 2016 were women.

What about the faculty? Roughly two-thirds of leaders reported that their institutions had programs to recruit either women or minorities to faculty positions, and about 40 percent reported efforts to recruit both groups. But nearly 30 percent of the leaders said they had no such programs. Those numbers are troubling to Mary D. Hinton, president of the College of Saint Benedict, in St. Joseph, Minn.

“We’re concerned, but we’re not doing as much about it,” Hinton said of the diversity dilemma. “That worries me. We have to use our concerns to generate action.”

A Wave of New Presidents?

The average age of presidents represented by the council, 61, is younger than that of leaders in most other sectors, including public institutions. But it means private-college presidents are older, in the aggregate, than in 1986, when they were 53 years old, on average.

The “graying of the presidency” could be a symptom of America’s aging population, the report’s authors write. At the same time, they say, it suggests a potential “surge” of presidents’ retiring — leaving a vacancy “for which a larger generation of higher-education leaders must be identified and prepared.” (About half of the presidents surveyed said they planned to leave their current post within five years.)

MaryAnn Baenninger, president of Drew University, in New Jersey, sees good and bad in those findings. On the one hand, navigating a presidency is harder than ever. So experience counts. A president has to be able to nail challenges in communications and emergency management without time to practice on the job.

But, she added, “we still are of a generation that grew up in a different time.”

“There might be ideas or approaches or new models that are going to kind of spring forth when that changeover takes place,” she said. “I think that could happen if we get a whole new crop of young presidents as well.”

Higher Education Under Attack

Nearly 40 percent of college presidents believe their state climates are hostile toward higher education, while only half feel that their states support colleges. State legislators, cited by nearly 40 percent of presidents, were seen as the “least likely” to understand their challenges. But a similar percentage of leaders felt that federal agencies and members of the media also misunderstood their institutions.

That aligns with a study from the Pew Research Center, released this year, that found that nearly 61 percent of Americans believe higher education is moving in the wrong direction. What’s more, in 2017, nearly 60 percent of Republicans said colleges have a negative effect on the country.

Scott D. Miller, president of Virginia Wesleyan University, said that view might arise from college presidents’ failure to deliver a unified message in response to misconceptions about higher education in the media. Miller, who has led four universities since 1991, said the cost of college is often misrepresented — whether by a financial expert decrying the expense of a degree, or media coverage focusing on extreme student debt.

“I don’t think presidents have been outspoken enough on the issue, and those that have been, I don’t think the message has connected with a wide-enough public,” Miller said. “I guess I just don’t totally buy that education is out of reach because of cost.”

Rich Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, said the group’s previous surveys have revealed a disconnect in how people view academe: They tend to appreciate their local colleges while distrusting higher education as a whole. Ekman said lawmakers and members of the media have discovered they can lob criticisms at higher education and rile up their constituents.

“A president knows,” Ekman said, “that part of his job is to deal with these things as they arise, and of course those of us in associations try to mount more-organized campaigns to combat some of these myths.”

Chris Quintana is a staff reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.