A college president's ABC's
Rewak, William J.
THE LAST WORD A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S ABC'S William J. Rewak For some years I have been doing an informal study, by interviewing college students, faculty and staff, and other presidents, on the...
...P. Provides on-campus parking for all faculty, staff, and students-immediately adjacent to their offices, classrooms, and residence halls...
...and a final number-one priority of building a successful football team...
...and has great regard for change and tradition...
...X. Reduces administrative staff by 5 percent a year, but increases services...
...O. Has as the number-one priority increasing funding for academic programs...
...N. Approves strict academic guidelines for admittance, and responds with understanding to alumni pleas for special consideration...
...I. Gets through approximately 500 pages of reading material a day...
...Z. Always presents a balanced budget to the board...
...G. Allocates 75 percent of the day to raising funds, but never discusses money...
...makes clear, just, and wise decisions...
...combined with a severe pragmatic personality that is impatient with infighters, adept at solving emergency budgetary and plumbing problems, and resolving disputes between the athletic department and the faculty...
...C. Limits all official talks to fourteen minutes, while addressing local controversies, national educational issues, specific long-range plans, development prospects, budgetary concerns, and on-campus parking...
...spends all available time with alumni, benefactors, corporate presidents, and parents who complain that their children don't receive enough financial aid and don't spend enough time with the faculty and administrators...
...T. Keeps the campus's physical plant and grounds attractive and clean without squandering limited resources...
...Q. Supports every college policy wholeheartedly, while vetting each one in light of truth and justice issues...
...H. Is always available in the office, sits on ten boards, participates in national and international meetings, attends most local banquets, works with community organizations and gives weekly addresses in the community, accepts dinner invitations five times a week, testifies annually before state and federal legislators for an increase in student financial aid, and spends quality time with the family (or his/her religious community...
...William J. Rewak, S. J., is the former president of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.Hill College in Mobile, Alabama...
...THE LAST WORD A COLLEGE PRESIDENT'S ABC'S William J. Rewak For some years I have been doing an informal study, by interviewing college students, faculty and staff, and other presidents, on the qualifications expected of a college president...
...K. Is dedicated to the physical and mental health of students, their social maturity and developing spirituality, and allows keg parties, relaxed parietal hours, an open speaker's policy, and campus appearances by heavy metal bands...
...has grey hair, with lines of experience in the brow...
...D. Works all daylight hours, and at night, paying attention to necessary details, including picking up beer cans and newspapers off the lawn...
...U. Creates a full complement of committees to allow for a broad variation of input...
...F. Is in the education field because of a desire to work with students...
...M. Keeps tuition, board, and room costs low but agrees to student demands for increased recreational opportunities, more diverse academic programs, smaller classes, resident computer capability, twenty-four-hour-a-day library service, and the option of steak every night...
...exhibits a warm, mature, presidential demeanor...
...another number-one priority of raising money for financial aid...
...Y. Reduces faculty workload by 10 percent while offering students more academic variety...
...B. Is amiable, personable, understanding, forgiving, humorous and truthful...
...L. Treats students as adults who take responsibility for their actions, but protects them from the police in matters of drug use, sexual abuse, violent and destructive behavior, theft, and harassment...
...From my "study" I have determined that the perfect college president is: A. Thirty-eight years of age, vibrant, healthy, and youthful, with a futuristic attitude...
...V. Listens carefully to every constituency on campus while making decisions in a timely fashion...
...is always businesslike, serious, and does not suffer fools gladly...
...R. Discusses, in a milieu of academic freedom, all issues openly and honestly, except those relating ta serious privacy issues like tenure, salary, etc...
...another of raising money for the residence halls...
...E. Has a spiritual-philosophical bent that allows him/her to dream dreams, create a vision in clearly articulated long-range plans, and to charismatically mobilize the faculty and staff toward higher achievement...
...discourages bureaucracy...
...speaks and acts authoritatively...
...J. Condemns laziness in the classroom and drunkenness in the residence halls, but in an off-hand manner, lest anyone be unduly grieved...
...S. Speaks and acts in a politically correct manner so as not to offend any ethnic, racial, religious, political, sexual, gender, handicapped, or socio-economic denomination, yet is totally honest about others' shortcomings, prejudices, ex-tremisms, and inconsistencies...
...W. Runs a democratic, representative campus...
Vol. 124 • November 1997 • No. 19
