College Presidents Should Come from Academia
Today, one-fourth of college presidents have business backgrounds and lack any prior experience managing a college or university. Boards of trustees tend to favor those who, like them, have business backgrounds, and executive search firms retained to identify candidates for presidencies seem absolutely convinced that a business background is an asset.
But business people are generally unprepared and unqualified to manage a university.
.. First, most business people believe in a management hierarchy, while universities function best in a state of managerial anarchy. The purpose of a college or university is to promote new thinking, new ideas and new perspectives. In this way, innovation and hierarchy are incompatible.
.. Second, most business people have a pseudo-practical orientation. They want to know, for example, whether a particular course of study will lead directly to a secure job and better wage. Many disdain the liberal arts and can’t understand why someone would want to study philosophy over accounting.