chuckstaben On being a president, Uncategorized

Board Governance 101

Know thy governing structure; they vary quite a bit.  Once you’re familiar with the position you’ve found yourself in, you need to cultivate a model that serves the university and your needs, whatever structure you have inherited.  

If you are an experienced president, you may want to skip this post, unless you want to fantasize about what life might be like under a different board structure.  My experience as Provost at the University of South Dakota and as President of the University of Idaho was with a system board.

Every university has some sort of governing board, but they all range in structure, mission, and operation.  Three structures are probably the most common:

  • A university governed by a self-nominating board:  This structure is very typical of private universities.  Board members are often alumni – often donors – but always people interested and invested in the university, usually very accomplished in business, government, or academia.  An advantage of such boards is that they are frequently advocacy boards, meaning that their prime interest is helping the president ensure the success of the college.
  • A university governed by a government-appointed board:  This is a common structure for public universities. Board members may serve because of their position in government, be elected, or be appointed by the governor or the legislature.  Again, members are typically accomplished in business, government, or academia. These boards can unfortunately – and unsurprisingly – be political. Like the self-nominating board, in most instances the primary focus of board members is helping the university succeed, though in this particular scenario that idea of success is often colored by a specific political perspective.
  • A university system governed by one system board:  The most obvious examples are state systems, but there can be systems governed by a religious or business entity.  The most extreme version of a state system is Idaho in which all of public education, K20, is governed by one board.  More common are systems in which higher education is one system and K12 is governed separately. The advantage of system boards is that they can take a very systematic look at the needs of a state; the disadvantage is that these are typically governance rather than advocacy boards.  Presidents may need advocacy help from some supplementary board. Systems usually employ a system officer or executive director and staff to oversee daily operations of the system.

The Board ideally sets priorities, general direction, and hires a president who can execute.  The most important decision that a Board is likely to make will be whom they hire as president.  The Board will decide whether to renew the president’s contract and can help a president set and achieve priorities, so this is definitely a “managing up” situation.

Ultimately, Board relations led to the end of my presidency, so perhaps I can retrospectively give a few pointers on challenges.  Be sure to align your presidential priority with the Board priority. Speak to them frequently about that priority, sharing at least monthly the progress you have made and engaging them for assistance wherever possible.  In my own case, I feel that while I kept the Board informed, I did so too infrequently and with too little positive detail; when you have infrequent communication the tendency is to highlight what needs work rather than what’s going well or improving.  In hindsight, I think all Board members may not be able to separate the daily challenges they have entrusted to you from the bigger picture; they may see small irritations like constituents who resent a tuition increase more readily than they perceive a need to support the university, for example. In many public institutions, Board meetings are highly regulated by public meeting laws. Incredibly, these laws have probably driven significant debate and question underground rather than brought them to light; in my experience many Board meetings are formulaic and not impactful.  The Executive Director in such a situation can be a powerful ally in communicating with the Board; this relationship is worth cultivation.

If you find yourself with a system Board, I recommend that you not only cultivate the Board but also seek powerful advocates elsewhere in a structured Board.  This may be, in some cases, a foundation board that oversees your endowment and is usually composed of accomplished alumni who might otherwise serve on a one-institution board.  If that body does not align with your needs, simply constitute an advisory board of your own. I found interacting with 8-10 influential and intelligent, yet independent people one of the most valuable interactions of my presidency.  I expected more difficulty positioning this advisory board relative to the existing foundation board and state board; in the end there was, unfortunately, remarkably little interest in the workings of this advisory board by other boards or interested parties like faculty.

chuckstaben On being a president, Uncategorized

Presidential Communication

Now that you have established your presidential priority, how do you communicate about it and about the myriad other issues that arise?  I think most freshman presidents will find that communication is a much bigger part of the job than they anticipated. Communication will have multiple objectives, and therefore be multimodal, but it must build your leadership persona and emphasize your priority.

This post will focus on getting one’s message out. The first thing to note about getting one’s message out as a President is that communication is a two-way street; understand the “listening” part of each mode, recognize the opportunity for conversation, and consider means of more specific listening.

As a new president, you may for the firts time be overseeing a Marketing and Communications group.  Ideally, this group works closely with you and your Cabinet to determine the key messages, constituencies, and communications.  I was particularly fortunate to also have a Director for Executive Communications who worked one-on-one with me; smaller universities may not present that opportunity. Time spent with such people to ensure they understand your message and your voice is a valuable investment. Unsurprisingly, the clarity of your goals and mission with your team impacts the efficacy of it’s delivery. If you’re not equipped with your own marketing and communications team, consider whether you should make this investment. In any event, take a very conscious approach to communication.

Additionally, realize that many others speak on your behalf – from your Vice Presidents through department chairs or directors.  Ensure that they have the messages and voice that guarantees effective communication at all levels. In this post, however, we will be focusing specifically on presidential communication and the opportunities most likely to arise.

Public Speaking

  • Programmed Occasions:  Whatever the occasion, identify 1 to at most 3 objectives you wish to communicate and how best to send that message.  Though I am a data guy, I recognize that the most impactful message often involves a more personal narrative.  Is there an example of a student whose life was transformed, or a faculty member who modeled the behavior you wish to motivate that can demonstrate the point you wish to make?
    • Faculty meetings, Senate meetings, Staff Meetings: Craft specific, but consistent messages for each audience.  If you are comfortable with question-answer, these can also provide an element of listening and approachability. As you think about question and answer, be sure you are armed with a few stats and stories that make your main point. If your priority is student success, be sure you know your graduation and retention rates and perhaps those typical of peer universities.
    • State of the University Address:  If you don’t have one, start it and make it an all-inclusive, open event.  Understand that this is a general audience, and the message must be specific and impactful as well as informative.
    • Guest speaking:  Those Chamber of Commerce luncheons can be a bully pulpit for your message.  Think about how the community can engage with the university and help you achieve your goals.
  • Specific events (donor recognition, award ceremonies, welcomes, guest appearances):  You will be at the podium for many occasions. I always found it useful to have the program schedule and prepared remarks so that I did not forget donor names, achievements, etc.  Again, a narrative-perhaps about how the donor embodies something important like student success or community involvement can be a powerful way of illustrating your priority to an important audience.  The risk of prepared remarks is that they can be stiff and unproductive, so do be prepared to go off script if you are comfortable.  

Media Relations

  • Editorial Boards:  schedule at least a yearly meeting with each local editor and/or editorial board.
  • Interviews:  Prepare ahead of time, with talking points and probable questions, especially problematic ones. With this last note in mind, have pivots to use for difficult or unanticipated moments -remember that you don’t have to answer the reporter’s question directly, you can pivot to something else, like…”I think our focus should be on student success, and I’d like to note the 5% improvement in our retention rate…but more importantly the impact that the University’s education had on Ms. Smith, who is now a leader in our community due to her experience.
  • OpEds:  I only wrote about 10 OpEds during my 5 year presidency, and I think that I should have tried to do them quarterly;  start of the semester, before and after legislative sessions, to keep the University positively in the news at local and, ideally, national levels.

Direct Written Communications

  • University email, website:  Don’t expect that everyone reads emails from the President, but reserve this channel for critical commentary, policy announcements, etc.  Make official emails short, informative and, if necessary, refer to more extensive material on the website. You may find yourself commenting on the university’s budget situation or expressing your thoughts on freedom of speech.  Craft these messages carefully, recognizing that they will also go beyond the university community. For example, an email that I sent about freedom of speech and responsible communication was widely quoted on 4chan, a rather reactionary blog site. Moral of the story: when writing or speaking on behalf of the university, expect yourself to be taken out of context to best avoid miscommunication. As President of a university, use your title as a gentle reminder to communicate like a politician!
  • Blogging:  I wrote (with help from my Communications Director) a topical letter published every Friday (Friday Letter) to 60,000 members of the university community-primarily alumni.  This is an excellent opportunity to communicate your priorities because it is a more personal, less official update from the president. The frequency of the letter as well as the format of the correspondence allows one to use the power of narrative and example and to show your engagement on campus and awareness of events on campus from football to academic excellence.  A weekly post is a lot of work, but well worth the opportunity. Consider inviting guest authors from time to time to lessen the burden. We collected comments on these posts; several of the more informative and controversial posts received up to about 50 responses, that gave a sense of alumni concerns and allowed us to more effectively engage with our audience.

Social media

  • Facebook:  Lock down your personal Facebook page and share it only with friends and relatives.  The University almost certainly has a facebook presence; contributing to that may be easiest and wisest course of action.  Your own presidential page will be a good deal of work, and I am not sure it is worth it. I had about 1700 followers on a specific President Chuck Staben page by the end of my presidency.  I approved the postings from my media director, but I think they did not have the substance or information of a blog post nor the immediacy of Twitter. Facebook is passe among students, and probably does not build an audience quickly for most presidents.
  • Twitter:  Increasingly popular-even with the President of the United States!  I have always felt that Twitter trivialized policy discussion, but if used primarily to enhance approachability and engagement, I think this may be a good tool.  Again, only useful if you commit to it and post several times daily. President Santa Ono at the University of British Columbia is often held up as the best example of a Twitter user as president.

chuckstaben On being a president, Uncategorized

Presidential Priorities

Let’s begin this blog as you probably will begin your presidency:  identify your priorities and craft your primary messaging around them. You may have done this during the interview process. Discuss these with your Board and with your Cabinet.

Almost every university or college will have a mission statement.  The problem is that almost all of them fall into a couple of classes.  Large public research universities, particularly the land grant universities where I spent most of my career, almost always have three pillars:  transformative education, innovative research and scholarship, outreach and engagement to constituents.  Smaller universities will generally focus on the education mission.

Radically changing the mission is an uphill push, one I would undertake only with complete Board support and an indication that constituents-from faculty to staff to students-are thirsting for this.  Of course, if all is going well at your university, you can adopt the mission and simply try to improve.  And, in certain settings, you must honor all parts of this mission.  Talking to the faculty without engaging them on scholarship and research will simply lessen your credibility.

I think that the challenge of presidential leadership, and one that I did not understand as well as I should have until the final year of my presidency crystallized this issue for me, is to distill the mission into an important but actionable priority.  This priority should drive allocation of resources, generate institutional success, and align with Board and stakeholder objectives.  I cannot say what that priority will be for your university, but an example, one that I think most presidents should seriously considering adopting, may help you consider this issue.

The wonderful appeal of the classic movie,  “It’s a Wonderful Life”, is that opportunity that I had as a scientist to conduct an experiment and a control.  In real life, we only get to do the experiment.  As President at Idaho, I emphasized the tripartite mission of the University, and though I personally focused on student access and success, I spoke often of our research and engagement missions.  Unfortunately, I think this did not communicate to any audience-Board, students, faculty, staff, or donors that one priority that would truly move the University forward. 

If I had that magical “do-over”, my focus would be student success.  By student success, I mean recruiting and retaining students who enter the university and graduating them to great careers and great lives as citizens.  This priority is extremely difficult to debate or negate from any viewpoint.  Students retained in college pay tuition, the financial lifeblood of even public universities.  And, the success of students assists in recruitment of more and even better students, as well as attracts Board and legislative support. 

Georgia State University may be one of the best, and most recognized, examples of a university that has used this priority to radically improve-both the university and their service to their constituents.  Certainly other universities, such as the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida have also benefited.

Of course, this focus makes most sense at a “mid-range” university that is graduating about 30-60% of its students; a university graduating >80% of its students will need another focus.  Other foci may be much more mission-specific or particular to an institution : meeting access needs of nontraditional students; educating for a critical industry; research supporting national needs.

Whatever your priority is, ensure that it drives your resource allocation and your messaging.  “We are making this investment to optimize student success.  This policy change will enhance our interactions with industry.”  You may need to adapt the message for a particular audience-as I have said, speaking to a faculty audience at a research university strictly about undergraduate student success will lessen your credibility.  But, every communication opportunity and every decision should be viewed in light of this presidential priority, at least until one can declare victory and simply sustain that mission while perhaps selecting the next objective.