Community college presidents must understand the phenomenon of campus safety. For this mixed-methods study, community college presidents in one state were surveyed, and three presidents from the same community college system participated in in-depth interviews. Descriptive statistics measured the levels community college presidents' knowledge and…

Higher education--particularly the liberal arts--has been under attack for several decades. With policies affecting funding, support for students, endowments, and more at stake, how can colleges and universities effectively demonstrate their value to policy makers and key community figures? For some insight and advice, "Liberal…

Recent leadership failures at a couple of major public universities suggest that we should revisit the question of how colleges and universities should be governed. This article presents the authors' views on the leadership roles of trustees, presidents, and faculty. They describe how those roles can be effectively played and point out some of the…

Controversies over higher education governance are in the news these days. The most recent occurred this summer when several members of the board of the University of Virginia asked the president, Teresa A. Sullivan, to resign, only to be forced to reinstate her after protests from students, faculty, donors, alumni, and others. That situation…

The recent resignation and hasty departure of Gene R. Nichol as president of the College of William and Mary has prompted the usual round of speculation about the state of the college presidency. Why do certain circumstances doom well-intentioned people and their presidencies? What determines success and wards off failure? Two intertwined…

In an interview, Gerald L. Baliles, a former Democratic governor of Virginia, talked about how the job of college president has changed over the years. Baliles said that a president must be many things to many people: leader of the academic community, chief executive of the business enterprise, the spokesperson, the fundraiser, the advocate for…

If a random sampling of student affairs professionals was taken, they'd all agree: without the work they do with students, campus functions would simply grind to a halt. "Student affairs professionals spend 80 percent of their time with students. We do admissions and registration, we house them and feed them, we do the counseling and guidance…

This paper aims to provide an examination of the entrepreneurial role of the community college president as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with that role. The author examines the literature, and presents case studies of four community colleges in Virginia. The 23 Virginia community colleges are located on 40 campuses and have…