The Chronicle of Higher Education has interviewed three higher-education veteran administrators about this year’s “unusual number of presidential meltdowns,” most spectacularly that of Lawrence Summers at Harvard (cf. “Crisis of Confidence” by Paul Fain, June 23). They focus generally (although not entirely) on deference to faculty, pity for over-burdened presidents, and wariness of trustee interference. Among their dicta:

  • “Presidents ‘create relationships problems’ because they do not create ‘a support [faculty] base’…whenever you become a university president you surrender a certain amount of your First Amendment Rights…[the president has] to succeed by assuasion rather than by direction.”
  • “The poor presidents only have 24-hour days like everybody else.”
  • “…[When trustees] start to second-guess decisions as to personnel…or the specific use of resources…they’ve gone beyond the scope of their responsibilities…[Corporate-minded trustees] seek greater accountability…greater transparency…They…are not sympathetic to a lot of the unspoken conventions and compromises…in a university setting – the blind eye we turn to the unproductive faculty member.”

Higher education is in the throes of a crisis of mission and leadership. This kind of blather indicates the extent to which faculty inordinately rule the roost – the degree to which truly shared governance, and necessary checks and balances, have collapsed; and to which students’ and the public’s interest have been subordinated to that of employees, albeit valued employees.