Dr. William Serrata has been President of the El Paso County Community College (EPCC) District since 2012. Dr. Serrata serves as an advisory board member of the Higher Education Research and Development Institute (HERDI), and was recently appointed to the Executive Committee for Board of Directors for the American Association of Community Colleges…

Mark McCoy, Ph.D., was president of DePauw University from March 2016 through July 2020, having served previously as dean of the DePauw University School of Music from 2011-2016. A first generation college student and the son of a coal miner, Dr. McCoy was committed to making DePauw an even greater place to learn, live, and work, with an emphasis…

In 1988, members of the American deaf community protested the appointment of a hearing person as the president of Gallaudet University, the world's only university for deaf and hard of hearing students. After a week of protest, the university's board of trustees capitulated and bowed to all the protester's demands. As the protesters engaged in a…

Immigrant community college presidents are working to ensure the unpleasant, even frightening experiences of their younger years are not replicated among the current student body. Immigrant leaders interviewed by "Community College Journal"--Dr. Steady Moono, president of SUNY Schenectady County Community College; Dr. Lin Zhou, president…

The role of college president comes with many challenges, requiring deft maneuvering in many different contexts and considerable planning. While focused on the daily business at hand, however, a university leader may not invest in the requisite level of thinking, planning, and strategizing that is needed to leave the presidency when it comes time…

In Executive Editor Frank Shushok's final interview, Freeman Hrabowski shares some of what he has learned in his long tenure as the President of University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He stresses the importance of attending to our values, and one that he considers especially significant is humility. Being humble has helped him rebound and learn…

This study investigates how new presidents of higher education institutions struggle to understand their organisations, paying special attention to campus resistance, and how new presidents manage institutional dynamics and expectations. A qualitative study using a phenomenological approach is conducted with 11 single-campus presidents of…

Though women make up the majority of community college students, faculty and staff, only 36% of community college presidents nationwide are female. With a significant number of presidential retirements on the horizon, there could be many opportunities for women in line for a community college presidency to take the next step along their career…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was two-fold--(a) to determine the barriers women encounter as they pursue becoming a community college president; and (b) to identify the supports and career paths that are described as assisting women in obtaining the position of community college president. More specifically, emergent themes…

With the growing participation of under-represented groups in American higher education, it is more important than ever that college presidents position diversity issues as a high priority on their leadership agenda. Given the continuing dominance of white males in college presidencies, it is especially important that white male leaders develop a…

After recounting the historical circumstances of the establishment of independent boards at Catholic colleges and universities, this paper considers the present conditions of boards at six Holy Cross institutions. Interviews and correspondence with the presidents of these institutions provided answers to a number of questions, including: How are…

Leadership has entered an age of chronic unrest. Scholars have emphasized the impact of healthy and effective leaders on organizations (Crother-Laurin, 2006), yet recent studies reveal high stress and burnout in the contemporary workplace (Walsh, 2005, 2013). The academy faces their own organizational challenges, (Archibald & Feldman, 2010)…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the learned experiences, challenges, and leadership pathways of Latinas currently in California community college management positions. Latinas have been underrepresented in community college leadership positions. Currently, women constitute a majority of those attending college, and…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of Collin College to terminate the services of Professors Lora Burnett, Suzanne Jones, and Michael Phillips. The investigating committee found that the administration's actions involved "egregious violations" of all three faculty members' academic freedom to speak as citizens and…

Since the establishment of American higher education, the presidential profile for institutions has lacked the gender diversity in presidential leadership positions. Though women have taken positive strides as senior executive officers in higher education in the past quarter-century, the conventional post-secondary president is a white, married…