Spring is interview season for aspiring presidents, provosts, and deans. It's when search consultants spend a lot of time sitting in meeting rooms at airport hotels watching candidates engage with hiring committees in the ritual dance of the preliminary interview. Even after 15 years of that, the author is constantly surprised by the approaches…

In this article, the author explains the complications involved when an internal candidate is included in an open search for a leadership position in an academic institution. Internal-candidate syndrome is a dilemma faced by institutions when they have to choose between an internal candidate and an external one. There are two reasons why…

When search consultants, like the author, are invited to propose their services in support of a college or university seeking new leadership, they are generally asked a fairly standard set of questions. But there is one question that they find among the most difficult to answer: How do they check a candidate's references to ensure that they know…

There are two kinds of references in administrative hires. The most customary is the "on list" references which a candidate asks one to provide. The second kind of reference is the "off list" variety, of which there are two types. Typical is the call one receives from an acquaintance at the hiring institution asking for the "dirt" on one's…

Even by the standards of higher education, presidential search committees are odd concoctions, combining the dynamics of the governing board, the faculty, the administration and staff, and the students in an environment that is, at best, unusual and, at worst, adversarial. Ultimately, however, that committee's work is vital to the future of the…

The institution is part of a national market and its presidential options are dictated by that market, the reputation, the challenges of the position, and the relative compensation for the opportunity to lead the organization. Many in academe are uncomfortable with the idea that hiring in higher education should be governed by the laws of supply…