Givens

• The model assumes that typical degrees will still be needed as the aspirant climbs the ladder to a presidency, such as, A doctorate degree – Ph.D. or Professional or DBA – or a terminal degree, like a J.D.
• Small colleges, the starting point for most new presidents, will continue to face severe financial pressures, requiring presidents who have the skills to understand all segments of the operations of a college.
• Colleges, particularly private colleges, will need presidents who understand the operations of an institution, so that they can make informed management decisions based on their experience as they prepare for a college presidency.

Alternate Career Path

• Rather than using the traditional academic path to prepare for a college presidency, the aspirant will follow a path in which they are assigned to each significant operational department.
• An Alternate Career Path will involve learning the skills, policies, and procedures of these departments: admissions, registrar, financial aid, bursar, enrollment management, academic affairs, IT, academic services, student affairs, finance, and building and grounds.
• The goal of the Alternate Career Path is to develop aspirants who understand the deep operations of the college its markets, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, along with the vision to develop strategies and the capability to identify problems that need to be fixed.
• This path will require the assistance of the president and senior administrators to schedule work as assignments to a department should take at least a month, and in some cases, may take a semester.
• Sample skills that can be mastered in each department:
  • Admissions – enrolling students, preparing class schedules, collecting transcripts and other documents, preparing a student portfolio, and passing the student onto the registrar and financial aid
  • Registrar – record enrollment;
  • Financial Aid – preparing an aid package for a student to include: governmental aid and loans, institutional aid copies of the enrollment and financial aid package to the registrar bursar.
  • Bursar – recording new and continuing student method of payment and providing the student with a statement of their account with any balances owed, and the dates for payment.
  • Enrollment Management – reviewing past data to estimate enrollment by major and degree level, estimate sources of financial aid, and identify target markets for enrollments. Design marketing campaigns for target markets by: reviewing past performance, sources of data on potential students, means of reaching the students, costs of the campaign, and the campaign schedule. Establish goals by major and degree level and average cost of enrolling student. Submit enrollment budgets to the business office and to the president.
  • Academic Affairs – work on the development of class schedules, assignment of faculty and classrooms; request and review syllabi, prepare lists of instructional materials to be ordered and list of books for the bookstore; notify building and grounds of classes, and prepare start of academic period information for building and grounds. Identify problems with the scheduling system.
  • IT – learn the IT and communications network structure of the college and shadow IT personnel as they work with administrative and academic networks and systems. Learn how to pull down IT data and produce spreadsheet reports.
  • Academic Services – work in the library and other academic support services to see how they organize and carry-out their work.
  • Student Services – this training set could involve a variety of services such as: student counseling, residence halls, food services, nursing services, and athletics. Time should be spent in each section to learn how they plan, deliver services, and their challenges.
  • Finance – training in finance is an imperative because a president must understand: the structure of the accounting system, the audit schedules, monitoring expenses; generating financial performance reports, and scheduling budget planning and analyzing proposed budgets, and preparing regular and end-of-year financial reports. By the end of training in finance, the aspirant should be able to read and understand budget, financial, and audit reports.
  • Building and Grounds – this is an interesting center that an aspirant should understand in detail the following: debt structure for the college, depreciation allocations, space allocation for instruction, support services, and offices; electrical and other utilities, building ages and physical condition, deferred maintenance, custodial services, and security services.
  • Additional Notes:
    • Train yourself to analyze operational problems and create solutions;
    • This path will require a considerable amount of time to complete, but, at the end of the training, the aspirant will have developed the skills to be a valuable leader of a college.