Anyone Want to Be a College President? There Are (Many) Openings

“Finding a president is a big complicated process because everyone in the university constituency cares about that selection, and getting it right is important to everyone,” mentioned John Isaacson, the chair of Isaacson, Miller, a company that has helped with searches for plenty of lead colleges. “It’s a process that takes time.”

U.C.L.A. and Yale didn’t reply to inquiries about their presidential searches.

Some attainable presidents are as cautious as colleges. Dr. Dirks, the previous U.C. Berkeley chancellor, mentioned he had heard of candidate swimming pools shrinking as potential presidents contemplated the roles’ pitfalls, in spite of mansion-like campus flats and salaries that may succeed in seven figures.

“It doesn’t quite have the allure it used to have,” mentioned Dr. DiSalvo, the Endicott School president, who runs a coaching program for enthusiastic presidents.

A power problem is that presidents should take care of such a lot of constituents — scholars, folks, school participants, alternative college workers, family officers, donors, alumni, athletic program sponsors — with competing pursuits.

“The position becomes one in which it makes no difference what you do, someone is going to be after you,” mentioned Michael M. Crow, Arizona Atmosphere College’s president. (“Boy, your alums, if they don’t like something going on, especially in athletics, they’re on it,” Richard B. Myers, the previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Personnel who after served as president of Kansas Atmosphere College, mentioned with a giggle.)