Symbols in Presidential Searches

The post on the search issues at Gaullaudet University has generated a lot of interest by readers. The University is an important part of both the deaf community in this country and the university community in the country. One reader who met Fernandes commented that her paper is better than her presence. As you read the other blogs on this issue there is indeed a lot of commentary for and against the administrative style of Dr. Fernandes. I cannot comment on that because I have not met any of the candidates. Often, as I have commented before, news reports are not always accurate.

In part this is an issue which is larger than this search at Gaullaudet. Presidential searches in universities have a lot of the defects of shared governance - they require the involvement of an enormous group of people, they may reflect either the strengths or the prejudices of the communities involved in the search. When they work well - a leader is found that reflects the diverse interests of the community and a president has at least some time to move the institution forward. The very nature of shared governance suggests that at some point the diverse communities will begin to split apart and the president either chooses to or is forced to leave. Some religious orders require that their presidents/rectors serve for a fixed term at a university (often in six year increments) - the intent of that is to assure that the community is made to reaffirm the common goals of the leader periodically.

Some presidencies are mandated to one group. For example, most women's colleges would find it hard to hire a male president. Prior to the accession of the current president, that seems to be the way that Gaullaudet was moving - i.e. the university would not be able to hire a president who was not hearing impaired. In the long term that model - whether it is for a women's college or for a specialized one like Gaullaudet diminishes the pool. Indeed, the president of a university is (and should be) a symbol of the community - but today's process in many university presidential searches seems to ignore the real possibilities of looking in a broader sense. The skill set for a college president varies with the institution - one needs to be able to communicate among the constituencies in the university and also needs to translate the community into the larger bases of society - in this case both the donor community and the policy community need to be able to have trust in the president.

A lesson I learned a long time ago about searches is that there is often not a need to make a decision as quickly as it seems - perhaps the board should have vetted this one a bit more and perhaps Dr. Fernandes is being unfairly maligned - but the board should have taken a bit more care in thinking about this issue.