The Research University Presidency in the Late Twentieth Century A Life Cycle/Case History Approach

Subjects:

• Education » Higher Education

Reviews:

• Using retrospective, in-depth interviews with eight research university presidents....authors Keith Brodie and Leslie Banner provide fascinating glimpses into the roles and responsibilities of CEOs of the largest, most prestigious higher education institutions....The book has numerous strenghts. The presidents' vignettes are given in detail, in their own words, in the analysis chapters. The presidents explain their human interactions, stresses, and weighing of challenges. We see the impact of decisions on them both as human beings and as presidents....This book provides a foundation on which scholars can build for future investigations, whether that is additional applications of the life-cycle concept or mining the rich transcripts for supplementary questions and theoretical treatments.
  —The Review of Higher Education 2006
• [A] well-written, fascinating contribution to this literature....It is the sense that the lessons learned by these presidents are applicable throughout higher education that makes this book both informative and interesting.
  —Planning for Higher Education July-September 2006
• [T]his is a valuable book, one that will be particularly helpful to incumbent and intending presidents. It gives a useful insight in the day-to-day life of a president, grappling with real-life issues, with all the turmoil and frequent inconsistency that mark the advancement of knowledge.
  —Duke Magazine January-February 2006
• Brodie, president emeritus of Duke U., gets a surprising number of frank answers from an equally surprising number of prominent leaders in high education, building his problem solving approach within a narrative framework....[s]omewhat unsettling but ringing with truth; university presidents' careers rise and fall in cycles, but those tough enough to take it seem to enjoy the ride.
  —Reference & Research Book News August 2005

• Endorsement From Richard H. Brodhead
  President, Duke University: Research universities are among the most distinctive and influential institutions of modern times, but little study has been given to the experience of their leaders. This book addresses this gap in a particularly helpful way. Based on long interviews with key figures that are brimming with personality and detail, it gives a vivid--and varied--sense of what it is actually like to live in this position: the tension, the challenges, the glooms and the occasional glories that mark the university president's life.
• Endorsement From Nils Hasselmo
  President, Association of American Universities and President Emeritus of the University of Minnesota: The authors have provided a lively and insightful study of the research university presidency in the late 20th century. By combining "story" and analysis, the study manages to capture both the agony and the ecstasy of this most interesting and challenging assignment, while at the same time showing that presidencies, in spite of varying personalities and circumstances, nevertheless tend to represent a basic life cycle. The book is both illuminating and entertaining. It should be very useful to those who contemplate taking on the responsibilities of a research university presidency.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction to the Study
• The Analysis
• Prelude: Candidacy; Preparation; Team Building; Agenda Setting
• Honeymoon: Honeymoons; Defining Moments; Risk Taking
• Plateau: Conflicts with Faculty; with Students; with Governing Bodies
• Exit: Resignations; Lame Ducks?; Aftermath
• Summary of Findings
• The Narratives
• Donald Kennedy, Stanford University 1980-1992
• Harold Shapiro, University of Michigan 1980-1987 and Princeton University 1988- 2001
• Michael Sovern, Columbia University 1980-1993
• James Freedman, University of Iowa 1982-1987 and Dartmouth College 1987-1998
• Robert O'Neil, University of Virginia 1985-1990, University of Wisconsin System 1980-1985, and Indiana University-Bloomington 1975-1980
• Benno Schmidt, Yale University 1986-1992
• Paul Hardin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1988-1995
• Vartan Gregorian, Brown University 1988/89-1997