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May 22, 2011

A Small College Tries, Tries Again to Land a President From a Shrinking Pool
By Tushar Rae Mount Marty College really hopes that the third time is a charm. Last December, nine months after its president had resigned, the governing board of the Roman Catholic, liberal-arts institution thought it had found the right replacement, but the finalist to whom they offered the job turned it down for a better offer. The search committee regrouped, began a new search with a new pool of candidates, and made a new offer in March. But that person, too, rejected Mount Marty when his spouse balked at the last minute. Now the college is in the process of narrowing down a third pool of candidates. Located in Yankton, S.D., a river town in the southeastern part of the state, Mount Marty enters the search for a college president with two age-old factors working against it: its rural location and small size; it enrolls around 1,100 students. But recent changes in the nature of college presidencies over all have further reduced the pool of candidates that Mount Marty might have been able to choose from in the past. One problem, say search consultants and colleges, is that growing numbers of provosts and chief academic officers, who are among the likeliest candidates for college presidencies, no longer aspire to the leadership post. These academically oriented officials see the president's job evolving into a business-oriented position, focused more on tasks like fund raising than on encouraging the life of the mind on their campuses. That lack of interest in the presidency is particularly problematic for places like Mount Marty. Provosts at midsized universities who might have once looked for opportunities to move up the career ladder by accepting the job of president of a small college are often no longer interested in moving where the job is likely to combine business and academic functions, says Dennis Barden, senior vice president at Witt/Kieffer, a consulting firm that helps colleges hire leaders. That leaves small colleges scrambling to attract candidates from other positions, including in development and business offices, or from outside academe. "Leadership is harder to come by," says the consultant, who is not familiar with the specifics of the searches at Mount Marty. Two distinct paths toward college leadership now exist, says Mr. Barden: one for people oriented toward being business managers, and one for people who are more interested in overseeing academic matters. "This change is emerging organically," he says. Two Failed Searches Carrol Krause, a retired executive director of the Nebraska State College system who has stepped in to serve as interim president at Mount Marty, says he has seen trepidation from provosts approached about the job. The college does seek a person who is adept at leading the business side of the college as well as the academic side. "As the president becomes more of a visible public leader, the day-to-day leadership responsibilities have

shifted to vice presidents of various sorts," Mr. Krause says. For many provosts, seeing the daily stresses on the president keeps them from aspiring to the position, he says. And beyond the changing pool of candidates, Mount Marty still has to contend with the realities of its location and size. The first finalist who turned down Mount Marty accepted a position at a university that is about six times as large. That candidate, James Loftus, vice president of enrollment management and student services at St. Ambrose University, accepted the position of president at Cardinal Stritch University, in Milwaukee. (Mr. Loftus did not respond to requests for comment.) "Some of the quality candidates we are interested in apply for several positions and end up going to a different, bigger school," says Sheila Kuchta, director of college relations and marketing at Mount Marty, who is a member of the presidential-search committee. The second candidate turned the college down after his spouse decided that she did not want to move to Yankton. "Geography plays a part," Ms. Kuchta says. "And we are in a small community." In the second search, college officials had not publicly revealed who received their offer, but they did name the two finalists: Tom Oster, a former secretary of education in South Dakota, and Richard B. Lloyd, vice president for college initiatives at Hastings College, in Nebraska. Mount Marty needs to find ways to sell potential candidates on the positive aspects of its location, such as the small-town sense of place and the outdoor recreational opportunities, says Mr. Krause, the interim president. "Perhaps we haven't stressed the whole community as we might." That might be in part because of a disconnect between Yankton and Mount Marty. David Knoff, mayor of Yankton, calls the city a "thriving Midwestern town with low crime, a very good quality of life, and a great recreational place to live and raise a family." But "there has not been as good a connection between the college and the community," he adds, "and there really should be." "We don't really see college stuff at local stores," he says. "There is not that kind of school spirit." A stronger connection between Mount Marty and the city might help attract presidential candidates to the college, the mayor says, arguing that there are plenty of "opportunities for a new president to bring the two together." In conversations with the third pool of presidential candidates, Mr. Krause says, the search committee has tried harder to answer questions and respond to concerns about Mount Marty's location and size early in the process to help candidates more clearly visualize working there. College officials have also done more to emphasize key strengths of Mount Marty, including its financial and academic stability. Small-College Trials Mr. Barden, the hiring consultant, says both institutions and candidates have a responsibility to be candid about issues related to location and size. "There is no such thing as a good surprise," he says. It's essential that candidates be open with colleges about any concerns they have when applying for a position, he adds. "I can't imagine that anyone should use location at the 11th hour to turn down a job." Still, Mr. Barden recognizes that the reality of a move often doesn't sink in, especially for family members, until the last minute: "When push comes to shove, in a family situation, it can become very, very difficult." One adjustment that Mount Marty has made in the third round of its presidential search, Mr. Krause notes, is to bring candidates and their families to the campus earlier in the process, in an effort to avoid last-minute troubles.

Small colleges tend to face other obstacles, too, to a greater degree than their larger peers do. Their own provosts may be hesitant to seek the presidency precisely because they tend to work closely with their presidents, says David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and a former president of Ohio Wesleyan University. From that vantage point, they see many of the job's stresseslike the challenges of fund raising, balancing budgets, and explaining salary decisionsup close and may be disinclined to take them on. Another impediment for small colleges seeking presidents is that some candidates figure that if they take the job, they will then be pigeonholed into colleges of a certain size, Mr. Warren says. That's a reasonable worry, says Mr. Barden. "It is well worth thinking about that first assignment because a bias can form from faculty and trustees," he says. "People are careful because that is going to establish a path for them." But while having more than one failed search is rare, the end result can be positive for a place like Mount Marty, the consultant says: "The person who takes on the position is going to be really interested in the institution and its challenges." Despite the factors working against Mount Marty, the search committee has once again narrowed the choice to two candidates, both of whom work in academe. "Since we are effectively working with a new pool of candidates, there is not a rush to make a decision until the right candidate is there," Mr. Krause says. "It is more important to find the right fit." If all goes well, he says, a new president will be in office by July 1.