Picking Presidents

Nearly 300 college presidencies in the U.S. are vacant this year--which suggests that the nation desperately needs a pool of skilled academic administrators. In the past, the grooming of college chief executives has often owed as much to chance as choice--a reluctant professor unexpectedly does well when his department's revolving chairmanship is thrust upon him, a dean displays a special talent for public relations or fund raising, a learned Government official wants an academic post.

One promising way of taking the guesswork out of presidential promotions is the internship program sponsored by the American Council on Education. Seeking out aspiring administrators on practically every U.S. campus, the A.C.E. every year sends up to 45 of them to another school as assistants to a top college administrator. There, the interns spend a year shadow-boxing with the problems of their hosts, taking a detailed look at how another campus operates--and incidentally enjoying more study time than they are likely to have again in their career.

Open Doors. Most interns spend their first weeks totally immersed in the problems of their new campuses. For Sister Mary Christopher Steele, assistant to the president of Detroit's Mercy College and now interning at Colorado College, that means at least one lengthy committee meeting a day plus in-depth interviews with upperclassmen fighting low mid-term grades. Associate Speech Professor Thomas Fernandez of Illinois' Monmouth College, on the run consulting with one administrator after another at Atlanta's Emory University, says: "I haven't encountered one single door closed to me."

After orientation, interns spend their time trying to solve the same kind of administrative puzzles that constantly occupy their bosses. Boston University's John Cartwright, assistant to a student affairs dean, already has persuaded students at the University of California's Santa Cruz campus to get off "the top of this hill" and help tutor the area's high school pupils from culturally deprived areas. Sister Mary Christopher surveyed student rights on 20 campuses as an aid to a Colorado College committee assigned to draft a student rights bill. Air Force Academy Associate Professor George H. Janczewski, assigned to work with University of Pennsylvania Provost David Goddard, budgeted the host school's international programs in New Zealand.

Most interns agree on the value of close association with experienced administrators. Billy Mac Jones, special assistant to the president of tiny Angelo State College in Texas, reviews issues at the University of Colorado with his mentor, Student Affairs Vice President Glenn Barnett, then bets him a Coca-Cola on the outcome. After ten weeks of forecasting, Jones is only two Cokes in the hole. Janczewski thinks of himself as "a working member of the provost's department," but echoes a majority of his fellow interns when he admits: "I can make mistakes for which I am not responsible."

Faculty Turncoats. The privilege of dealing intimately with top administrators can cause internal friction with host faculties; understandably, many professors harbor grudges against ambitious "faculty turncoats" in their own midst, not to mention outsiders. Perhaps because of his Air Force intelligence background, Janczewski has been the target of some suspicion at Penn, though Goddard insists: "He's definitely not a provost's spy."

Sponsored by a $4,750,000 Ford Foundation grant, the A.C.E. program pays interns the salary they received at their home college, makes them promise to return for at least a year. The council picks about one of every seven prospects, who must survive a round of exams, essays and interviews. The A.C.E. picks well: of 23 fellows chosen in 1965--the first year of the program --four are already college presidents and all but one of the others has been promoted.

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