1. Retirement Wave Hits Presidents
by Emma Whitford, InsideHigherEd.com
"Dozens of college presidents have announced that they will retire or otherwise step down before or at the end of June 2021, the close of the current fiscal and academic year.
The pandemic provides an unusual backdrop for leadership transitions, although many retiring presidents have said the pandemic was not the primary reason for their departure.
The apparent flood of retirement announcements makes perfect sense, said Rod McDavis, managing principal at AGB Search, a higher education leadership search firm. Many presidents who would have announced their departures in the spring held off. Instead, they’re sharing their plans this September, alongside other planned fall announcements.
“Because of the pandemic, I think most presidents who were planning to step down simply didn’t want to make an announcement, because you don’t want to make that type of announcement with a crisis occurring,” McDavis said.
>> Why Now?: "Fall announcements in particular fit well into the rhythm of the academic year, said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and a former U.S. under secretary of education in the Obama administration. He could not say for sure whether the recent number of announcements is unusually high this year."
>> Reality Check: "The increasing age of college presidents could also be behind the many retirement announcements. A 2017 ACE study found that the average age of college presidents is ticking upward, from 60.7 in 2011 to 61.7 in 2017. More than 10 percent of presidents were 71 or older in 2017, and presidents are spending less time in their jobs than they used to. The average presidential tenure was 6.5 years in 2017, down from seven years in 2011."
>> Between The Lines: "Running a college is never easy, but the pandemic has exacerbated already-existing financial woes for many colleges and added a slew of public health concerns that have kept colleges under the national microscope. On top of that, a shift in national demographics is expected to move student bodies away from the wealthy 18- to 24-year-old white students many institutions traditionally served, increasing colleges’ need for robust financial aid and flexible programs."
>> The Final Word: “College presidencies are very hard jobs, and there’s not a lot of evidence that they’re going to get easier any time soon,” Mitchell, a former president at Occidental, said. >> Continue Reading | 
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