This study examined how recently appointed, first-time public university presidents made sense of their new institution and position during their transition into their presidency. The information gained from these interviews is expected to illustrate how first-time public university presidents prepare, collect information, and learn about their…

Increasingly, community colleges recognize the need to center transformational change on equity. This chapter presents findings from a multi-site qualitative case study on how community college presidents and chancellors can keep equity at the forefront of the transformational change process. The three community college presidents and chancellors…

The business management problem addressed in this study results from the need for succession planning practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This systematic qualitative review examined which succession planning practices improve knowledge management and employee retention within HEIs. Despite the growing number of baby boomer…

Think you know what it takes to be an effective leader in higher education? You might be surprised. Why is it so difficult to find and hire college and university presidents? Perhaps search committees are recruiting in all the wrong places. In "The New College President," Terrence J. MacTaggart and Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran share the…

In this essay, I introduce the term "governance inversion" to describe a situation in which a university administration repositions a governance body in such a way as to limit its legitimate governance function. Structural conditions might make governance inversion more likely, but narratives might also be deployed to make the inversion…

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…

Over the years there has been an increase in the turnover of Historically Black College and University (HBCU) presidents. As the turnover rates at HBCUs continues to increase, many higher education researchers have noted that HBCUs are currently being plagued by a leadership crisis (Evans et al., 2002; Freeman & Palmer, 2020; Kimbrough, 2017).…

This chapter explores the ways in which critical community college leaders leveraged their leadership position in order to promote civic discourse and engagement in their institutions and respective communities. Five community college presidents from diverse communities across the United States were interviewed using a narrative inquiry approach…

The annual presidential address is traditionally an opportunity for the leader of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) to discuss the state of social studies and to provide insight about its direction. Central to these addresses have been reflections on the purpose of the social studies, which NCSS states is "… to help young…

The nation's community colleges play a key role in addressing the need to expand and diversify the STEM technological workforce. However, significant barriers must be overcome for the programs to meet the increasing demand for skilled employees. The programs are expensive to establish and maintain; community colleges are generally underfunded;…

Vice Chancellors, Presidents, or Rectors occupy elite public positions in universities. A cursory glance of the roll call of names across elite universities ('top 100') globally reveals the dominance of white males. Research has given us some insight into the profiles of these senior leaders and their selection, but not with a particular focus on…

Higher education is going through a significant period of change following the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased technological capacity and desire for online modalities are both a great opportunity and a potentially challenging burden. Although they serve the most marginalized students, community colleges are often vastly under-resourced, leaving…

Students and faculty in higher education increasingly reflect more diverse backgrounds, but this diversity remains rare in many leadership roles. In Leading from the Margins, Mary Dana Hinton celebrates the unique strengths of marginalized individuals, inviting them to embrace their leadership potential and make a difference. Drawing from Hinton's…

In China, higher education institutions (HEIs) have a governance arrangement in which the university president and the party secretary occupy key roles. However, their legal roles as institutional leaders are vaguely specified in existing legal frameworks. Based on a four-dimensional theoretical model, this paper (i) clarifies the leadership roles…

In this critical qualitative study, we draw on interviews with sitting Presidents of Color in one state to explore the racialized dimensions of the college and university presidential search and appointment process. Informed by Ray's racialized organization tenets of whiteness as a credential and racialized agency, our findings show that…