College and university presidents can position themselves to be a great resource for the country and the world. This chapter introduces the perspectives of two presidents of the University of Notre Dame, Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. who served for 35 years (1952-1987) and was a major presence in American higher education and a classic public…

Purpose: This study aims to raise the issue of the president as the intellectual leader of the university in that they are the voice of the importance of the Humanities, both in inclusion and diversity measures, in decolonizing the curriculum and recognizing the importance of teaching life skills to students. Design/methodology/approach:…

When students, professors, and faculty understand the tasks associated with their institutional roles, it can help them more easily negotiate power differentials and take conflict less personally. Our framework of role-to-role relationships reduced explosive drama in a case study with a higher education president and vice president locked in a…

The boundaries of higher education organizations (HEOs) are becoming increasingly porous both in the USA and globally. Research has shown that individuals within universities (e.g., trustees and faculty) can serve as boundary spanners who connect universities to their external environments. However, our knowledge of how individuals span HEO…

This article explores genres as recurrent acts of positioning that contribute to associating particular positions with the genre users as social actors. As an illustration, the study investigates the positioning of Chinese university presidents in their published opening convocation speeches. By combining rhetorical move analysis with the…

The purpose of this article is to provide insight into the perceptions of college presidents on their role in budgeting and finance. While most of the past research in this area has focused on how to engage and understand budget and finance practices, this chapter sought to highlight the perceptions of the roles of those involved in the process,…

Guided by Hurtado et al.'s (2012) Multi-Contextual Model for Diverse Learning Environments, this qualitative case study examined Black graduate students' perceptions of a university president's responses to racialized incidents. Data were analyzed on an institutional level through institutional documents and presidential statements and…

This qualitative, descriptive single case study examined Black graduate students' perceptions of campus racial climate at a predominantly white institution (PWI) and how they were shaped by a president's response to racialized incidents. A greater understanding of how Black graduate students' narratives reveal how whiteness inhabits the PWI and…

Research on senior leadership in higher education systems is urgently needed, particularly in the context of system-wide transformations. This study focuses on a critical juncture in Ireland, during which Institutes of Technology (IoTs) collaborated to undergo 'redesignation' as Technological Universities (TUs). Based on interviews with the…

The organization and management of universities have changed radically in recent years and has been the subject of various studies. One line of research that receives little attention, however, is the study of the leadership of university presidents as relevant actors in the academic and administrative management of universities and in the…

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…

A university president occupies an increasingly symbolic position in today's higher education landscape, yet this aspect of the presidency is not well understood. Expectations for engagement, partnership building, fundraising, and cultivation of a public image continue to increase, while tenure lengths of presidents have fallen. Utilizing data…

In the last three decades, Canadian universities have grown in size and complexity and undergone deep transformations. Meanwhile, who should be appointed as highest-ranking administrative officers and what they ought to be doing once appointed has remained hotly debated. This paper examines how Canadian universities' understanding and framing of…

This study utilizes interviews with five Hispanic presidents at Hispanic-serving community colleges in the United States to understand how presidents define and perceive their role in ensuring Hispanic servingness, that is, guaranteeing that the Hispanic population is being fully served, at Hispanic-Serving Institutes (HSIs). We employ Garcia and…

This paper examines how the stated roles and qualifications of Canadian university presidents and provosts have evolved over the past thirty years and the growing presence of recruiting firms. The study analysed 153 job advertisements published by 22 universities between 1987 and 2017. Roles were categorized according to aspects of organizational…