College Presidencies are Not for Sissies!
Coos Bay ZONTA Club
September, 2007
My fifteen years of experiences as a college president confirm current data about community college presidents, especially women in that position. The 2007 American Council on Education (ACE) of “The American College President” states that changes for presidents in the higher education landscape over the last twenty years result from changes in the diversity, conduct, and mindset of students, parents, faculty, external forces and personal life.
Students today are more diverse in age and thought but more similar in their needs. Similarly, ‘helicopter’ parents are becoming more common, hovering over their students children, young and old alike. The concept of ‘in loco parentis’, college responsibility for students on their campus as in K-12 institutions, has not existed for colleges and universities since the 1800’s. By law and practice college students are adults, protected by unique privacy laws that prevent colleges from communicating student performance even to parents, unless a legal waiver is signed. Therefore, the new student and parent realities fly in the face of college legal requirements, causing significant leadership conflicts.
Faculty members’ diversity, once very singular in perspective, now match the increasing diversity of our students and society; requiring more sensitivity, finesse and understanding for all leaders amidst the gender and cultural differences and perspectives.
Increasing awareness of and expected accountability for the communities we serve require increasing amounts of presidential time. Public accountability and leadership expectations have slowly increased since the 1970’s and now take up over 50% of a college president’s time, once totally internally focused.
Amidst all of this change in higher education diversity of culture and thought, diversity of community college presidents has also increased. When I accepted my first community college presidency in 1991, the percentage of women in community college presidencies was lowest of all types, 14%, with doctorate- and masters-granting institutions slightly higher. At that time only baccalaureate degree granting institutions documented female presidents in over 20% of their institutions, but primarily because of the number of nuns in those positions in private, church-based institutions. In 2007, Associate Degree granting institutions boast the largest proportion of female presidents (26.7% of new presidents and 28.8 of all presidents); with Baccalaureate (26.2% and 23.2%), Masters (23.4% and 21.5%) and Doctoral (17.9% and 13.8 %) right behind. The total number of female presidents in all American higher education institutions is now 23%. It is noted in the 2007 study that women continue to be hired into presidencies at a rate significantly below percentages of women represented in higher education administration and senior faculty. Minority presidents only total 13.5%: 11.4% for Doctoral, 12.9% for Masters, 13.1% for Baccalaureate and 13.9% for Associate degree granting institutions.
So what does all of this mean? One short answer lies in a brief expression I heard over a decade ago “It does not pay women to be in a field which is predominantly female, because the wages are always higher in predominantly male fields.” So the good news for women in higher education is that we are paid as well as men in our field for our investment in the futures of the students in communities we serve.
However, sacrifices for all presidents have increased as a result of increased campus diversity and expectations on- and off-campus. The conclusion in the 2007 ACE study is that presidents have no personal life. My experience has been that the way in which a president’s personal life has been defined in the past; opportunity to anonymously relax away from the job within the community; has been lost for those who work in my field due to increased accountability in our electronic real-time world. In other words, I live in a fish bowl.
On the surface, the fish bowl is exciting and filled with opportunities:
· This morning we kicked off a new transportation program with twenty South Coast Trucking Firm owners.
· Our many dinners and events at the new Culinary Institute connect me with hundreds of community members with great ideas for new initiatives.
· I have learned that Jerry Livingston, a college employee, grew up in my home which has afforded me a chance to learn more about the college connections to both my home and the community.
· My next door neighbor expressed in a casual conversation her concern about not modeling the right image for her daughters because she is staying at home to raise them. I answered, I live next door… your daughters see a professional women every day and know very well they can achieve careers of their dreams.
· And of course, the opportunity to speak with you today about women in higher education provides a significant entrée for community and college interface.
Personally, the fish bowl requires that I, like you, work very hard to carve out the time with my families, with colleagues and for personal rejuvenation. It also seems for professional that the time required for personal rejuvenation, requisite for effective work with our families and colleagues, increases over time.
I am here to tell you to schedule that personal time, to value and protect the time for yourself as much as you value and protect that time for your family and job, and make sure that the personal time does not come at the expense of sleep and exercise, but in addition to a healthy lifestyle.
My life and the lives of my female colleagues are just like yours: full. Make sure you treat yourself as the professional others value in you!
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