Former Governor of Virginia Gerald Baliles ’63 recently led a study on the state of the presidency in American higher education, resulting in the publication of a 50-page report titled “The Leadership Imperative.” The study provides guidelines for university presidents and educational boards, addressing issues that range from dealing with fundraising, criticism from faculty, and stressful schedules.
“I think it’s fair to say that a president must be many things to many people…but the environment in which a president operates has also changed,” Baliles said in an online interview with the Chronicle, a higher-education blog. “The political climate surrounding higher education has become highly charged. There are a greater number of students from diverse backgrounds and all with different needs lining up to attend college.”
Baliles was chairman of the task force that led the study, a group that also included the presidents of Georgetown, Cornell, and the College of William and Mary. In the summer of 2005, the task force began holding teleconferences with the presidents and chancellors of seven independent and 13 public colleges and universities. Through these interviews, the task force gathered data regarding successful and unsuccessful presidencies before offering their conclusions in “The Leadership Initiative.”
One of the main recommendations of “The Leadership Initiative” is for presidents and governing boards to foster “integral leadership.” According to Baliles, this would involve a president who “exerts a presence that is purposeful and consultative, deliberative yet decisive, and capable of course corrections as new challenges emerge.”
The report also states that an academic president must function like the CEO of a large company, managing the institution’s financial responsibilities and attracting the private financial support that is indispensable to any thriving university or college.
“Academic presidents have become less visionary and more managerial in focus,” Baliles said in the interview. “There is a proliferation of special-interest groups and criticism from inside and outside of the academy. It’s a very different job than it used to be.”
The report is intended to inform governing boards, presidents, and policymakers in the hope that they will use this information in order to strengthen America’s higher education institutions.
The report also makes specific recommendations to educational boards, university presidents, and state policymakers on how to achieve integral leadership. Educational boards should be held responsible for assessing the president’s performance in a transparent manner, while state policymakers should make skill and experience a priority during presidential searches, instead of personal loyalty to political benefactors.
The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), a national association that aims to help campus administrators, organized the study. According to the AGB website, it was important to study presidential searches because of “the simple fact [that] all of our colleges and universities need to educate more students more cost-effectively than ever.”
After graduating from the University and earning a law school degree, Baliles served as attorney general of Virginia from 1982 to 1985. He then served as the sixty-fifth governor of Virginia from 1986 to 1990.
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