But most often boards will pull together funding from other budget lines for a search, said Jim Hundrieser, vice president of consulting and business development at the National Association of College and University Business Officers. If given enough warning, some boards may set aside funds for the process. Most institutions don’t budget for these searches. Each search comes with fees to search firms, travel expenses and ever-increasing salary offers to woo potential leaders away from their current post. While more frequent searches are lucrative for search firms, they are costly for colleges. Mark Schlissel, the former University of Michigan president, and Mark Rosenberg, former Florida International University president, left their posts this year amid misconduct allegations. Former California State University system chancellor Joseph Castro resigned in February after a USA Today investigation alleged he mishandled harassment and bullying complaints against a senior administrator. Former State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras resigned after a months-long drama related to workplace misconduct allegations dating to his time in the Andrew Cuomo administration. Heightened scrutiny-and occasional scandal-has led to the ouster of several high-profile college presidents in the last year. companies spend an average of 6.9 years in their role. A 2020 report by Korn Ferry found that chief executives at the top 1,000 U.S. Faculty and staff that are also more vocal, you have the press requesting public records more frequently-it’s a very public job.”Ĭollege presidents are now spending less time on average in their roles than other CEOs.
“You have governing boards that are more vocal. If anything, it’s been expedited,” Harris said. “The public scrutiny of the role of a president is certainly not diminishing. Harris and McDavis anticipate that average tenure has fallen even further in the last five years. In 2016, the average sitting president had served just 6.5 years. In 2011, a typical president had been in their role for 8.5 years, according to a survey from the American Council on Education. “The impact of the pandemic has raised the stress level for the position, and some presidents who had planned to be in their positions for a longer period of time have reduced the time that they intend to stay in office,” McDavis said.īut even before Covid-19 ripped through college campuses, the average length of the American college presidency was on the way down. Other, newer presidents who had planned to serve for several years more may be accelerating their departures, burnt out after a couple of years dealing with Covid-19. Many college presidents who had intended to retire or step down two or three years ago decided to stay on to see their institution through the worst of the pandemic, and now they’re taking their leave. Covid-19 is partially to blame for the surge in presidential departures, said Jeffrey Harris, the founder and managing partner of Harris Search Associates.
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