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Leaders in the Labyrinth College Presidents and the Battleground of Creeds and Convictions
By Stephen J. Nelson
ISBN: 0-275-99792-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99792-2
256 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 6/30/2007
List Price: $64.95 (UK Sterling Price: £37.95)
Availability:
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Quiet grace and dignity, characteristics closely associated with a college presidency, go only so far during stormy union negotiations, frustrating budget hearings, and long, contentious board meetings about how to market the college to increasingly skeptical and technology-controlled consumers. Nelson finds that successful presidents, or potential presidents have their share of traditional characteristics but also possess the ability to hold the core of the university together whether in intellectual or financial boom times or bust, and have the insight to know when the battle is for the soul of the university and when it is merely a minor skirmish. Nelson's narratives from the front line are always instructional and often riveting, and the result is not only a guide for prudent educational leadership but also a tool search committees can use to find that quiet grace and dignity with the necessary edge.
    —Reference & Research Book News     November 2007
  • Endorsement From David L. Kirp
    University of California,Berkeley
    author of Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education:     Leaders in the Labyrinth is a superbly told account of the travails of contemporary university presidents. Stephen J. Nelson draws on candid interviews with some of the most thoughtful leaders in higher education to reveal how they handle the challenges of one of America's hardest and most important jobs. For anyone interested in higher education policy-making in particular or leadership more generally, this book is eye-opening reading.
  • Endorsement From John Hennessey
    Charles F. Jones Professor of Management and Third Century Professor Emeritus
    Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College:     Professor Nelson has written a valuable book that enriches our understanding of the job and role of the modern college president. Grounded in his own earlier scholarly research, this work paints a vivid portrait of how complicated and nearly impossible the presidency has become, with its overload, dilemmas, constraints, diversions, and ideological wars--clouded over by the fundraising imperative. Then, through remarkably productive interviews with fifteen sitting and past presidents of distinction, he shows how effective leadership depends on the transformative energy that comes from reestablishing the fundamental creed of the university and shaping a center of civil discourse. Among the many who will benefit from Nelson's thoughtful framing of the possibilities and promise of the top job in the academic grove are presidential search committees, for whom this book should be required reading!
  • Endorsement From Katherine Haley Will,
    President, Gettysburg College:     Dr. Nelson documents the challenges facing college and university presidents in the 21st century through comprehensive interviews with 15 presidents of some of the nation's leading institutions. His analysis of the radical changes in the expectations placed on presidents by both the campus and community explains the delicate balancing act required of those who represent the academy. Dr. Nelson paints the contemporary college presidency in all of its complexity without excluding the deep sense of fulfillment this role continues to bring to those committed to the advancement of higher education.
  • Endorsement From William Simmons,
    Professor of Anthropology and former Executive Vice President and Provost, Brown University:     This book is an original study of the hurricane forces that challenge the leadership of college and university presidents in the present day. By focusing on fresh and first-hand interviews with fifteen distinguished presidents, Steve Nelson has provided a unique and absorbing account of how higher education is changing and of how these extraordinary individuals, guided by academic values, steer their ways through change.
Description: In addition to academicians, scholars, administrators, and trustees, this book will interest any alumni or graduates who follow the leadership and fortunes of their alma maters and of other colleges and universities, and their presidents. The book argues for the central role of presidents and calls for their influence not to be restricted to the margin, that is, to fundraising and development. Rather, these leaders are, and will continue to be, instrumental in fashioning the university of the future in ways that are distinctive and pronounced among the various and competing forces presumed central to those future prospects and directions.
Leaders in the Labyrinth sheds light on how presidents conduct the influence and power of their office, especially in the use of their pulpits, how they navigate issues of political correctness, and how they hold the center of the university together, in contentious times and against competing ideological forces. Nelson has formulated a comprehensive image of the tenor, talents, and temperaments essential for today's presidency, for those who aspire to assume leadership in the future and for those who select the leaders of our colleges and universities. Because this book depicts the stories and scenes, issues and concerns ever-embedded in the lives of colleges and universities, Leaders in the Labyrinth will enrich readers interested in leadership, in the fortunes of college presidents, and in preserving the academy as a distinctive and irreplaceable enterprise.
LC Card Number: 2007009380
LCC Class: LB2341
Dewey Class: 378
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