President Larry Johnson was just the second president of Guttman Community College when he stepped down over the summer to take the top job at Bronx Community College, another public two-year school part of the City University of New York system.
The Blueprint is a new bi-monthly column that analyzes strategic trends among college and university presidents and chancellors across diverse sectors of higher education.
Eager for a new challenge, Johnson marked the beginning of his time in the Bronx with a “100 days of listening” tour to connect with the community members of a larger, well-established institution. The tenure of some faculty members at Bronx is older than Guttman, which was founded in 2011.
“It’s always a little difficult when you think about making the transition,” he said.
Across the country, men and women stepped into top executive roles at colleges and universities during a summer when strategic planning encompassed everything—from emerging programmatic needs and to new demands from policymakers and the public.
University Business sat down with three new presidents who represent different sectors of higher education and identified some elements they shared in one of the most demanding jobs in the country.
“I imagine it’s always been challenging to be a new college president, but navigating the headwinds and complexities that the sector faces right now makes it particularly challenging,” said Brooke Barnett, president of Rollins College, a liberal arts school in Florida.
Improving academic offerings
Barnett began her tenure at the state’s oldest college in July and has focused on updating the liberal education for the 21st century. A former journalist and news producer, the first-time president finds that the challenge is as much about perception as it is about content.
“The liberal arts are as relevant now as they ever were, but we have lost the public relations side of that,” she said. “How we create some counter stories and narratives to those perceptions is definitely on my mind.”
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Bronx President Johnson intends to retool current academic programs to better correspond with regional workforce needs, such as nursing and autonomous vehicle training.
“One of my visions for this college is to ensure that we become a hub of academic and research excellence where our students can thrive and employees can flourish, and where we meet the needs of our workforce,” he said.
Harnessing the power of data for student outcomes
Data analysis is a powerful tool for forecasting market demands and driving programmatic innovation, Johnson said. It can also serve as a vital tool to understand student outcomes.
As a result, improving just-in-time data dashboards that inform staff about student engagement, persistence, retention and graduation rates is among the president’s priorities.
At Texas Christian University, a medium-sized research university in Fort Worth, President Daniel Pullin and his team are analyzing all quantifiable data to tune up student success. Pullin wants to lower student-faculty ratios and raise retention and six-year graduation rates.
“You have to have the courage to not only surface the best data but to act on it,” he said.
Forming new relationships
Another important component of courage is committing to continue working with community members after tough leadership decisions, Pullin said. Doing so will build trust during a presidency.
“You want to go far and you want to go together, but not everyone is going to agree all the time,” he said. “But if you continue listening, you can keep people on the team because they know their voice is valued and valuable, despite their priority not prevailing.”
Listening is one of the fundamental lessons Barnett has learned since becoming president of Rollins. Like Pullin, Barnett believes open dialogue is vital to a president’s long-term success.
“Many of our campuses really do just run on positive relationships,” she said. “The negative ones can derail the work that we’re trying to do.”
Bronx President Johnson believes that an open ear and an open mind keep new leaders—and their aspirations—fresh.
“What I have learned is that each leadership position has invoked a different leader because each institution needed something different.”
