Academics as CEOs

CINCINNATI – There is an interesting wire from the Associated Press buried on page A9 of today's Cincinnati Inquirer. Headlined in the paper, “A rough year for college presidents comes to a close,” the piece goes on to relate just how much turmoil has surrounded top university offices over the course of the past academic year. Found elsewhere online, the article reports:

"This has probably been as hard a year for presidents as we've had since the Vietnam era," said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education.

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[M]any academics agree 2005-06 seemed exceptionally discordant. They also agree it's getting harder to be a successful president.

Many leaders are overwhelmed by the unrelenting fundraising demands (22 colleges are in the midst of official campaigns to raise at least $1 billion), tripped up by big-time sports programs, or bowled over by parents and students who pay more than ever and no longer hesitate to complain about the slightest imperfections.

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Median compensation for presidents of research universities is about $470,000, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's latest survey (compensation is about half that at smaller schools). [Outgoing George Washington University President Stephen] Trachtenberg's most recently released annual compensation figure was more than $700,000. That's less than CEOs of top corporations make, but pretty good for an academic.

And perhaps that is where the tension lies. To comment that university presidents make less than CEOs but “pretty good” wages for academics is to plainly ignore that university presidents and chancellors really are CEOs of major corporations.

University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley makes less than that $470,000 national median, yet his campus, with some 40,000+ students, massive faculty base, sizable staff and considerable acreage, is larger than many American communities, let alone small and mid-size corporations.

The financial, personnel and community demands placed on an American college are comparable to those of a corporation. The product being sold is research and education, the clientèle is students and donors, and the factory is a combination of classrooms and research laboratories.

Interestingly, the Cincinnati Inquirer also has an editorial in today's edition that tackles the question of how best to prepare secondary school principals. In passing, it notes:

The College of Mount St. Joseph will begin its principal certification program next year, incorporating two nationally-recognized approaches in its requirements. It will require candidates to undertake an internship - along with mentoring, a key to grooming young principals - and it will divide their time among public schools, private schools and a small business owner. It's a brilliant combination of academic training and practical management skills.

If secondary school principals are to be expected to have – or obtain – business management skills in today's world, then isn't is about time we acknowledge that university presidents and chancellors also need to possess those skills?

The era of aloof academics at the top of the ivory tower is over. And the era of CEOs running major educational hubs is upon us. If America's colleges and universities are to remain the successful institutions they have long been, it would seem high time that we start paying these presidents and chancellors accordingly.