My Journey to Higher Education Leadership

What influenced your decision to become a president?

One afternoon earlier in my career, the president’s chief of staff at the institution where I then worked asked me to send her a memorandum describing all my major achievements as a vice president. When I completed the report, I felt quite proud of all I had accomplished for my institution in just a few years, including a successful accreditation process, new academic facilities, improved student retention and graduation rates, and the completion of the first faculty collective-bargaining agreement. A few weeks later at a banquet where our president was honored, I looked at the program and much to my surprise, the report that I had submitted was included verbatim.

While the president received praise for all he had contributed to the university—praise he did deserve—I suddenly realized that whatever any cabinet member does, good or bad, occurs “on the president’s watch.” That evening changed my life.

After the banquet event, I continued to work hard and support the president’s agenda, but I decided to interview for my own potential presidency about six months later. The interview process helped me see the demands of the job firsthand and the role that higher education governing boards play in hiring, evaluating, and guiding the president. I was not offered that presidency, but the chair of the board of trustees of that institution called me and told me I was going to get a presidency—that it was just a matter of time. And he was right.

What advice do you have for others who aspire to be a college or university president?

I am currently working with the Executive Leadership Institute in the School of Education at Clark Atlanta University. One of its affinity groups is composed of individuals who hope to become college and university leaders. The program identifies and discusses with the participants fundamental executive competencies, such as “cultivating relationships and networks,” “building high performing teams and pipelines,” and “navigating board governance.” Such competencies are crucial if a president is going to achieve any measure of success.

For example, a president must engage with a variety of constituents who are both internal and external to the institution. Also, a president must build a leadership team with the strength and the willingness to help achieve the institution’s goals and ensure student success. And if a president cannot figure out how to develop a solid relationship with their board chair and board members, they will not be able to accomplish their key goals for the institution and its students. This is, of course, a two-way street—board chairs must also establish a strong and positive working relationship with the president.

Besides such competencies, there are other things that I discuss with my mentees in the program. First, I encourage them to give serious consideration to what this position really entails. A college or university presidency is one of the most rewarding jobs anyone can hold. I have sat on the stage at commencement with tears of joy in my eyes as students walked across the stage to receive their diplomas. Students have said to me, “you didn’t think I was going to make it, did you?”

At the same time, as I point out in my book, From the Projects to the Presidencies, a higher education presidency is also probably one of the most difficult jobs around these days. A recent Forbes article, “Why It’s Arguably the Toughest Time Ever to be a University President,” spells out, higher education leaders face many complex and, at times, almost overwhelming challenges. I served as a president for nearly 30 years and enjoyed it, but on some days, I was not sure I would survive.

I often compare the position of a college or university president to that of the person at a carnival who spins many plates on long sticks. As a president, on one stick, you have students. On another, you have faculty members. Staff, alumni, regulators, and board members all each have sticks of their own. No matter how well you can spin the plates, eventually one will fall—in fact, possibly more than one at the same time.

I know that the people who aspire to be a college or university president believe that they can handle all these difficult situations, but the constant turnover is beginning to show otherwise. According to the American Council of Education’s American College President Survey, in 2022 presidents had been on the job an average of 5.9 years, down from 8.5 years in 2008.¹

What is going on? We should all be concerned.

Higher education governing boards, national search firms, campus search committees, and board professionals all should ask why this trend is occurring. My aim here is not to discourage people from applying for presidential positions but to make them and others think about what is involved and how to succeed in such roles. In my view, how or whether a president survives depends on how well they have developed the competencies and knowledge I have just highlighted.

You are one of the first people to ever serve as chief executive officer of both a historically Black college or university (HBCU) and a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI). What did you learn from that about institutional mission and student success?

It was an honor when the California State University System selected me in 1999 to become the president of California State University, Dominguez Hills, an HSI and one of the most diverse institutions in the country at that time. Whether I was the first person to have served as president of both types of institutions or not, the real issue for me was how similar the missions were at Jackson State University and California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Certainly, those institutions have different formal mission statements. One is “obligated” to serve the African American community and the other to serve the Hispanic community. But when it comes to mission statements that drive long-term planning, we focused at both institutions on how best to serve a population that has been under-resourced and historically underserved, and I regularly asked the question, “How might we use our teaching, research, and service pillars to uplift the community we serve?”

Both institutions also had high percentages of students coming to us less well-prepared than we would have desired. So, we had to create and implement wrap-around programs and services (for example, counseling and academic tutoring) that ensured our students—whether from North Long Beach, California, or Mound Bayou, Mississippi—were successful, that we were not just admitting them but also retaining them through graduation.

In fact, one of my fondest memories of California is hearing many African Americans in the Los Angeles area refer to Dominguez Hills as “the HBCU of the West Coast” due to the high percentage of African American students and the “personal touch” we made part of the campus environment. And despite obvious cultural differences between Jackson State and Dominguez Hills, the celebration at graduation was similarly heartwarming and emotional.

The biggest challenges I faced in the two positions resulted from how much they differed in their governance and institutional operations. The first job was at a university in one of the smallest higher education systems in the country with seven campuses, 12 board members, and a commissioner of higher education at a university located in the state capital. The second was at an institution in the largest public university system in the country, with 25 board members and a chancellor. As the campus chief executive at Dominguez Hills, if I was to be successful, I had to find a way to navigate a much larger higher education universe in Los Angeles than I had in Jackson, Mississippi. While regularly reminding the board of our institution’s mission to support students from underserved communities, I also had to learn how to keep more plates spinning.

James E. Lyons Sr. is a senior consultant at AGB; a trustee of Alliant International University in San Diego; and the author of From the Projects to the Presidencies: My Journey to Higher Education Leadership.

Notes