The Chronicle’s On Leadership video series explores various aspects of campus leadership with top executives and other movers and shakers across academe.
Hosted by Chronicle editors and reporters, the series explores trending and relevant topics in higher education. Watch as the University of Missouri’s interim president, Michael A. Middleton, talks about how to bring stability to a system rocked by racial issues; and as Sweet Briar College’s president, Phillip C. Stone, talks about how to save a campus. Other executives at institutions small and large discuss race, sexual assault, managing change, student activism, social media, crisis management, and much more.
Think your campus executive should be interviewed for On Leadership? Let us know.
On Leadership
Neeli Bendapudi explains why she chose to become president of the University of Louisville, and how she hopes to help it recover from years of scandal.
On Leadership
Howard A. Gillman, a noted First Amendment scholar on the University of California campus, also talks about the security costs associated with protests and visiting speakers as a big problem for colleges.
On Leadership
Marvin Krislov, president of Pace University, in New York, talks about how his institution seeks to improve the economic status of its students with an education that blends specific job skills and the broader benefits of the liberal arts.
On Leadership
Michael A. McRobbie, the university’s president, talks about how antipathy toward such students is bad for higher education and the nation.
On Leadership
Carmen T. Ambar, president of Oberlin College, talks about the importance of explaining to parents that college is worth the price.
On Leadership
Fred P. Pestello, president of Saint Louis University, talks about the risks and rewards of investing in more research opportunities.
On Leadership
The Rev. Peter M. Donohue, president of Villanova University, says its recent NCAA basketball championships have attracted star students as well. But, he says, it still struggles to increase its enrollment of students of color and from low-income families.
On Leadership
Meredith Woo, president of Sweet Briar College, talks about what it will take for the Virginia institution to survive and grow just a few years after it nearly shut down.
On Leadership
Elizabeth Bradley, president of Vassar College, says selective colleges like hers need to do a better job of communicating their value to conservative critics and listening to diverse political viewpoints.
On Leadership
Rafael Ramírez-Rivera, chancellor of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, reflects on the tumultuous year and the struggles of leading a campus in crisis since Hurricane Maria struck the island.
On Leadership
Anne Clark Bartlett, a former “nontraditional” student who is now a dean at the University of Washington at Tacoma, shares thoughts on how colleges can help such students succeed.
On Leadership
José Luis Cruz, president of Lehman College of the City University of New York, says one key to helping Hispanic students succeed in college is to focus on their energy and drive.
On Leadership
Joyce C. Ester, president of Normandale Community College, in Minnesota, talks about how colleges can be more intentional about increasing the diversity of their leaders.
On Leadership
Pomona College’s president, G. Gabrielle Starr, says the California institution is offering some 50 to 100 DACA students on its campus legal and logistical aid, and regular get-togethers, to let them know they’re not alone in their struggles and worry.
On Leadership
Beck Taylor, president of Whitworth University, talks about how a Christian college navigates the rocky terrain of faith and politics.
On Leadership
Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, talks about a major new project to create fully online competency-based programs for job training.
On Leadership
Eduardo M. Ochoa, president of California State University’s Monterey Bay campus, speaks about the role of the regional system in social equity and social justice.
On Leadership
Widener University’s president talks about its “common ground” initiative to encourage productive conversations among people with opposing viewpoints.
On Leadership
Kellye Testy describes signs that the outlook for many law schools may be improving. The number of applications is beginning to rise again. And the current political climate has engendered more interest in law and the effect it can have on issues like immigration and social justice.
On Leadership
“We can’t just rely on championing free speech as if it’s a free market,” says Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, who is himself an intellectual historian.
On Leadership
Jeff Abernathy, president of Alma College, in Michigan, discusses how he is stretching a dollar, rethinking administrative structure at the top, and using technology to help Alma and two other small private colleges pool their curricular resources.
News
Peter Eden, president of Landmark College, chats with The Chronicle about Landmark’s pedagogical approach, the changing culture around neurodiversity, and the rewards and challenges of the college’s mission.
On Leadership
Sean M. Decatur, president of Kenyon College, stopped by The Chronicle’s offices recently to discuss how his institution is working to reach more low-income students.
On Leadership
Greg Postel has been at his institution for 23 years. Although he is interim executive vice president for health affairs, he also stepped into the top role when the president resigned last summer. He talks about how he has tried to help the university move past its controversies.
On Leadership
After spending her academic career outside her native California, Mary A. Papazian, president of San Jose State University, describes her arrival there as “coming home.” She talks about committing to be a long-term leader at the university, and about what she’s doing to help it reach its potential.
News
F. King Alexander, president of Louisiana State University, says he will continue to speak out for public higher education and against politicians who undermine it. But he sometimes wonders where the voices of his peers are.
On Leadership
Nicholas B. Dirks talks about public support for higher education and the controversy involving a conservative provocateur who plans to speak on the campus on Thursday, even though Berkeley officials say it is not safe to do so.
On Leadership
Judy L. Genshaft, president of the University of South Florida, is among the still-small group of women who lead research universities. Her advice to others? Get the right credential, and be prepared for the demands and sacrifices of the job.
On Leadership
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has endured several years of budget cuts and a stronger hand by the state government in its policies. Chancellor Rebecca Blank discusses winning back some funds, repairing dings to its reputation, and navigating the Trump administration.
On Leadership
Lisa W. Wardell, the new president and chief executive officer of the DeVry Education Group, talks about the regulatory changes she expects under the Trump administration, why DeVry University recently settled several legal problems, and more.
On Leadership
Presidents of historically black colleges are visiting the nation’s capital this week to meet with President Trump and other political leaders. Their institutions have value for the nation but need more support from the White House and the Education Department, says Roslyn Artis, president of Florida Memorial University.
On Leadership
Karen A. Stout, president of Achieving the Dream, says the organization has fostered a conversation around data-driven decision making, and helped improve student outcomes, at the more than 200 colleges it has worked with since 2004. But she says much more needs to be done.
On Leadership
Mark Lombardi, president of Maryville University, in Missouri, describes some of the interesting changes it has recently made in the education it offers. Technology plays a key role.
On Leadership
Eboo Patel, author of a new book, Interfaith Leadership: A Primer, says religion — and the contributions of believers — should be an integral part of diversity efforts.
On Leadership
Alfred Bloom, vice chancellor of New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi, recently spoke with The Chronicle about the importance of higher education to help counter anti-globalist sentiment.
On Leadership
Andrew Ainslie, dean of the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, analyzes which business-school strategies serve students well and which fall short.
On Leadership
Lynn Pasquerella, the new president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, stopped by The Chronicle’s offices to talk about the best way to make the case for liberal education.
On Leadership
It makes them attractive to employers, for one thing, says Joyce Russell, who became dean of Villanova University’s School of Business this past summer.
On Leadership
Eli Capilouto, Kentucky’s president, stopped by The Chronicle’s offices this week to talk about the case and the university’s broader efforts to create an environment where victims feel they can safely and confidentially report those crimes.
On Leadership
David W. Oxtoby, president of Pomona College, recently spoke with The Chronicle about his advocacy on behalf of undocumented immigrant students and what advice he has for new college presidents.
On Leadership
Students from homes or high schools where few others have gone on to college don’t have peers they can turn to for advice when times get tough, explains Carl Strikwerda, president of Elizabethtown College, in Pennsylvania.
On Leadership
Scott Pulsipher, the new president of Western Governors University, describes how the competency-based education provider builds relationships with students.
On Leadership
Katherine Bergeron, president of Connecticut College, discusses how it revamped its curriculum to help students better connect their experiences in and out of the classroom and to help them develop a broad question to frame their education.
On Leadership
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, the first female and first African-American president of Connecticut’s Trinity College, explains what it is doing to make it easier for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds to attend.
On Leadership
In a recent interview, the University of North Carolina president also spoke about a new tuition rate of $500 per semester on three campuses and – perhaps most important – how she compares North Carolina barbecue to Texas barbecue.
On Leadership
Edward Byrne, president of King’s College London, believes that deeper collaboration across borders could shake up the international hierarchy of great institutions.
On Leadership
Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University, discusses how his institution has used a combination of global focus and experiential learning to raise its profile, and how colleges should be preparing students for the job market of tomorrow.
On Leadership
In a Chronicle video, Nariman Farvardin, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, describes balancing its hands-on majors with the liberal arts.
On Leadership
President Kevin F.F. Quigley talks about the college’s Town Meeting governance structure and a scholarship program designed to bring one student from every state to this New England campus.
On Leadership
The group’s protests against racism at predominantly white colleges have led to a different set of conversations on historically black campuses, says Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University.
On Leadership
Ted Mitchell visited The Chronicle’s newsroom to talk about the Education Department’s role in promoting innovation and change, and ways the legacy of that work could endure after the Obama administration.
News
Sheila Bair, president of Washington College, in Maryland, says it’s been too easy for colleges to raise tuition because it’s been too easy for students to borrow money, and that has created a drag on the economy.
On Leadership
Allison Garrett, president of Emporia State University, in Kansas, talks about how her institution is dealing with a challenging state budget.
On Leadership
Being a low-income student is difficult, but it’s even more difficult if you’re also a woman. Barbara Gault, executive director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, says colleges’ schedules and services have long catered to traditional, childless students. They should change to accommodate a new student population.
On Leadership
Randy Woodson, chancellor of North Carolina State University, says a controversial law that requires transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the gender listed on their birth certificates is discriminatory and could damage his campus’s standing in the scholarly community.
On Leadership
David Longanecker, set to retire as president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, says colleges must become more “friendly” to low-income and first-generation students.
On Leadership
Nancy L. Zimpher, chancellor of the SUNY system, says it’s time to rethink how public universities prepare tomorrow’s educators.
On Leadership
Arati Prabhakar, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, discusses the importance of university research and new projects involving academic scientists.
On Leadership
Carol Geary Schneider, who will retire in June from the presidency of the Association of American Colleges & Universities, describes what we know about a high-quality education and its greatest threats.
On Leadership
Darron Collins, president of the College of the Atlantic, explains how an institution of only 350 students can have an impact on innovation in higher education.
On Leadership
Wayne Frederick, president of the historically black university, says it needs to be more selective in enrolling students and choosing how to support them.
On Leadership
The university has given Eric F. Spina, the new president, 10 months to learn from his predecessor, Daniel J. Curran, before taking over. In a recent conversation, the two leaders talked about the methodical changing of the guard.
On Leadership
Michael H. Schill, president of the University of Oregon, also talks about his plans to focus marketing efforts more on academics and less on athletics.
On Leadership
Gregory L. Fenves, president of the University of Texas at Austin, doesn’t believe guns belong on campuses. But a new state law disagrees with him. In an interview, he explains how he set rules to carry out the law.
On Leadership
Ian Bickford, the provost of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, describes what it’s like to run a college whose students never finished high school.
On Leadership
James A. Troha, president of Juniata College, discusses how he draws on his background in student affairs to meet students “where they are” about their college experience, and to improve diversity on the Pennsylvania campus.
On Leadership
Dennis Di Lorenzo, dean of New York University’s School of Professional Studies, describes how recent changes at his institution aim to help more students get jobs.
On Leadership
Ajay Nair, senior vice president and dean of campus life at Emory University, describes his institution’s unusually detailed response to activism over the campus racial climate this fall.
On Leadership
Jay A. Perman, president of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, talks about how his institution worked to help the city before the recent unrest there, and how it has intervened to help at-risk youth before they reach college age.
On Leadership
The Education Trust’s president says colleges that are serious about helping low-income students succeed should make it their job from Day 1.
On Leadership
The university faces declining enrollment, but its president, Timothy P. Slottow, says it will remain a relevant and valuable option for students.
On Leadership
With the University of Wisconsin’s board expected to vote soon on new tenure policies, Raymond W. Cross, the system’s president, describes the challenges he faces in both reassuring professors and making lawmakers more supportive of higher education.
On Leadership
The best way to lend support to higher education is to “help colleges do what they need to do,” says Josh Wyner, executive director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute.
On Leadership
In an interview with The Chronicle, Phillip C. Stone talks about how he hopes to dig out and rebuild the Virginia college stronger than ever.
Leadership
How community colleges gauge students’ readiness, place them in courses, and guide them through developmental education reveals some promising but not yet widespread innovations, says Evelyn Waiwaiole, director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement.
Leadership
Michael F. Adams, a longtime NCAA leader, spoke with The Chronicle about the need for tougher admissions requirements for athletes and for strong deterrents to cheating to ensure the legitimacy of big-time college sports.
On Leadership
The University System of Maryland has some innovative teaching approaches that help retain students. Robert Caret, its chancellor, describes how they workand why they are key right now.
On Leadership
Public universities should deepen their engagement with their communities and make those partnerships part of their core academic missions, says Robert J. Jones, president of the University at Albany.
On Leadership
The University of Missouri has never effectively dealt with the “serious scars” of systemic racism and discrimination against African-Americans, says Michael Middleton, its interim president, and he hopes to help grapple with those issues.
On Leadership
Bernard J. Milano, president of the Ph.D. Project — a nonprofit organization committed to diversifying the faculty ranks at the nation’s business schools — talks about how the Ph.D. Project works, its track record, and why faculty diversity matters.
On Leadership
Benjamin Ola. Akande, president of Westminster College (Mo.), is less interested in singing “Kumbaya” than in seeing results.
On Leadership
David Wilson, president of Morgan State University, says the protests in Baltimore, following the death of Freddie Gray, gave the institution an opportunity to help the city heal.
On Leadership
President Sari Feldman of the American Library Association discusses programs that preserve tweets as well as books.
On Leadership
The University of Exeter’s vice chancellor speaks on what American policy makers and colleges can learn from Britain as they look to improve access to higher education for disadvantaged people.
On Leadership
Mark P. Becker, president of Georgia State University, discusses the institution’s success raising graduation rates and the challenges of maneuvering a fledgling football team into the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics.
On Leadership
Ana Mari Cauce’s own life has been touched by prejudice and racial violence. At Washington, she’s pushing for a frank dialogue about diversity and inequality.
On Leadership
President Phillip C. Stone discusses what students and faculty can expect this fall and how he’ll work with alumnae. Part 2 of 3.
On Leadership
Phillip C. Stone talks about the pressure he feels to succeed for the sake of all liberal-art colleges and what his institution might look like in five years. Part 3 of 3.
On Leadership
Seton Hall University’s A. Gabriel Esteban talks about how he furthers new strategies while seeking to shift the institution’s direction.
Newsmakers
Rohit Chopra, a former official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, talks about the pitfalls of what he calls a “broken” system and the pressures on for-profit colleges.
On Leadership
Timothy M. Wolfe of the University of Missouri system says higher ed needs to do a better job of defending itself when its budget comes under attack.
On Leadership
Arthur Levine shares his insights on what went into the creation of the open-source Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning.
On Leadership
Kevin Kruger, president of the student-affairs group Naspa, speaks on student activism and why administrators shouldn’t be afraid of it.
On Leadership
The president of Becker College discusses how the Massachusetts institution is prepared “to thrive in volatile times.”
On Leadership
Paul LeBlanc, president of Southern New Hampshire University, explains his vision of competency-based education and what has surprised him from his college’s own experiment.
On Leadership
Scott Coltrane, interim president of the University of Oregon, talks about the university’s new board, its state support, and its AAU membership.
Athletics
Mary C. Willingham spoke with The Chronicle about how Chapel Hill’s academic scandal highlighted larger problems in big-time college sports.
On Leadership
Laurie A. Leshin, the first woman to lead Worcester Polytechnic Institute, talked about the importance of having female leaders in higher education.
On Leadership
Harold E. Varmus, former head of the National Cancer Institute, discusses the budgetary challenges facing the National Institutes of Health.
On Leadership
The director of the National Science Foundation, France A. Córdova, is devising strategies to improve the standing of female scientists, who are paid less and promoted less often than men are.
On Leadership
Once the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s chancellor, Mr. Thorp is trying to raise admission of low-income students at Washington University in St. Louis.
On Leadership
Declining student demand and a weak job market have turned up the pressure on law schools. Blake Morant, dean of the George Washington University Law School and president of the Association of American Law Schools, describes some of the things they are doing about it.
On Leadership
President Tuajuanda Jordan’s priorities include stabilizing finances and enrollments at St. Mary’s College of Maryland after it missed its targets by significant margins.
On Leadership
Francis S. Collins believes better times are ahead for his agency and medical researchers after a decade of tough budgetary constraints.
On Leadership
Gen. Charles C. Krulak talks about the steps that he took to restore stability to Birmingham-Southern College.
On Leadership
Columbia College Chicago lost 24 percent of its enrollment in the five years before Kwang-Wu Kim took over as president, in 2013.
On Leadership
Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities, says ideologically motivated and corporate-minded board members are hurting public colleges.
On Leadership
Vassar College’s president argues that a key constraint colleges face in diversifying their enrollment is not finding needy students; it’s allocating money for adequate aid.
On Leadership
Michael J. Sorrell has had to resort to unusual means to rescue Paul Quinn College from collapse after its accreditation was revoked.
On Leadership
President Beverly Daniel Tatum of Spelman College has helped create a strong culture of alumni giving during her tenure.
On Leadership
Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, thinks he knows what students need: lots of support.
On Leadership
Blending a traditional liberal-arts education with practical real-world projects can make students more valuable contributors to the organizations they will work for when they graduate, says David P. Angel, Clark University’s president.
On Leadership
Karen R. Lawrence, president of Sarah Lawrence College, talked with The Chronicle about the college’s new assessment tool and how she expects it to help prove that the institution is doing what it claims to be doing. Watch the interview here.
On Leadership
In a video interview, Kathleen McCartney, president of Smith College, talks about the importance of mentors and how her background shapes her approach to leadership.
On Leadership
Raymond E. Crossman, president of the Adler School of Professional Psychology, discusses the myths that persist about gay presidents in academe.
Leadership
The new president sees the system as an engine of social mobility for the state.
On Leadership
James M. Danko, president of Butler University, talks about how colleges could do better at conveying the value of their “product.”
On Leadership
West Virginia University’s president sat down with The Chronicle to reflect on the troubled end of his time at Ohio State and his efforts to secure his legacy.
On Leadership
Mariko Silver, president of Bennington College, talked with The Chronicle about the challenges of replacing a long-serving predecessor, and about how her age—36—affected her reception.
On Leadership
Santa J. Ono, president of the University of Cincinnati, talked with The Chronicle about how being genuine on Twitter can bolster a leader’s reputation and the university’s, too. Watch the interview here.
On Leadership
Kim A. Wilcox, chancellor of the University of California at Riverside, talked to The Chronicle about what works for improving student success.