Aug 5, 2009 | Essays
Originally published: “What Search Consultants Do,” Inside Higher Ed, August 5, 2009 Curious, a commenter on my IHE piece, “How Candidates Can Stand Out (in a Good Way),” wrote, “It is hard not to think that when search consultants are involved, the search...
May 13, 2009 | Essays
Originally published: “How Candidates Can Stand Out (in a Good Way),” Inside Higher Ed, May 13, 2009 Candidates in all searches, administrative and faculty alike, are inevitably confronted with variables that they cannot control, most notably the strength...
Mar 23, 2009 | Essays
Originally published: “On Being Presidential,” Inside Higher Ed, March 23, 2009 In several years as a search consultant, I have been struck by how quickly and easily presidential search committees agree on which semi-finalists they can envision as their...
Mar 6, 2009 | Essays
Originally published: “Boards and Presidents — After the Hire,” Inside Higher Ed, March 6, 2009 The world of higher education is replete with stories of new presidents who have floundered in their first several years. (Fortunately, there are many...
Oct 30, 2003 | Essays
Originally published: “Toward a Smooth Presidential Transition,” Trusteeship (AGB), September-October 2003 Trusteeship, v11 n5 p13-17 Sep-Oct 2003 Discusses the role of the board of trustees and the incumbent president in managing the transition to a new...
Mar 30, 2001 | Essays
Originally published: Mission Possible: Mission-based Decisions Can Offer Immediate and Dramatic Benefits, Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, March 2001 Many colleges and universities today are facing new external pressures, leading some to alter their...
Nov 30, 2000 | Essays
Originally published: Change and Its Consequences, published in Liberal Education, Fall 2000 Most college administrators are being bombarded with reports urging change and describing how to effect it. At the same time, colleges and universities are faced with new...
Apr 30, 2000 | Essays
Originally published: Alcohol Policies Your Campus Can Live With, published in Trusteeship, March/April 2000 At a recent government-sponsored meeting on college drinking, I received a call from my office that a student from my own campus had been cited for creating a...
Jan 31, 2000 | Essays
Originally published: College drinking: the elephant on campus, op-ed piece in The Seattle Times (January 31, 2000) Shortly after returning home from a National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) meeting on college drinking, I learned that a student from...
Feb 22, 1999 | Essays
Originally published: Charting the Future: Puget Sound’s Next Decade, February 1999 The Board of Trustees has asked me to define my sense of what our institutional goals should be for the coming decade. I have welcomed the exercise because it has served to clarify my...
