Help Wanted: Who wants to be a college president?
The hearing from hell will resonate for years to come
I’m out this morning with a long piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education on the disastrous hearing where the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and Penn were walked into a political trap that almost no one would leave unscathed. Yet, these leaders have been endlessly graded on how they did, and the New York Times, especially, has put more ink into the hearing and its fallout than many more important stories they could have covered. Column also linked here:
Susan Svrluga is also out with a piece today in the WaPo, and Melissa Korn had an excellent one this weekend in the WSJ. The hearing suggests that presidents must have perfect knowledge of when to send out statements and when not to, when to praise their students and when to condemn them, and when not to give technically correct but politically clumsy messages under oath in a high-stakes congressional hearing. There aren’t too many people who can do that while also being academically qualified to run these places. Is there anyone?
I go through in my piece who needs to step up to address this (answer, everybody), so take a look and see what you think.
In the meantime, support your local president even though they’re out of favor. They could use some love.
Holden, as always, appreciate so much your candor, insight and gift for writing to compel people to read your words. Hope v v very many people read this. (Regardless, you’ve set a new bar in our house, where I read aloud to the husband all the time -- got to watch the word meter when I do that, which was pretty much impossible this time.) Thanks
Thank you. Besides worrying about DEi, Israel and plagiarism some of the critics of the presidents are looking to put businessmen as college leaders.