Book Review: Out in Front 

Editor: Dr. Lawrence V. Weill

Publisher: Roman & Littlefield Education in partnership with the American Council on Education series on Higher Education (Susan Slesinger, Executive Editor)

Reviewer: Dr. Robert V. Smith, Registry Member and Senior Consultant

Registry member, Lawrence Weill, is the architect, one of eleven contributors, and editor of Out in Front.  The work, written primarily for first-time and would-be college or university presidents, addresses the unique challenge of “how to be the public face of the institution.”  Weill and his colleagues tackle the challenge through a set of ten essays on presidents’ roles working with constituents, the board or system chief executive, local community members, the press, and labor unions.  A unique chapter on the president and the family leads the above-noted array.

The contributors represent experiences from community colleges, private liberal arts colleges, and public colleges and universities.

In the “The President and the Family” (Thomas Meredith, Western Kentucky University and Susan Meredith), the husband and wife team highlight the extraordinary visibility, expectations and potential liabilities presidents and immediate family members face, especially if they reside in a college or university-owned home.  Susan Meredith, in particular, offers valuable insights and advice for the “first spouse” and children of a “spousal team” on choosing community involvements, honoring former friendships, and organizing entertainment and relationships while residing in “the president’s home.”

The chapters on “The President-Student Connection” (Janet Smith, Columbia State Community College) and “The President and Parents” (Dale Knobel, Denison University) offer sound and practical advice on interactions of presidents with these core constituent groups.

The additional “internally-oriented constituent chapters,” including “The President, the Alumni, and Fund Raising” (Peyton Helm, Muhlenberg College), “The President and the Senior Staff” (William Durden, Dickinson College), “The President and the Faculty” (Thomas Harden, Clayton State University), and “The President, the Board, and the System Chief Executive Officer: A Unique Set of Relationships” (Daniel Papp, Kennesaw State University) round out the core of the book. 

Helm’s essay provides useful guidance on alumni expectations of a president from sartorial to character assessments to public behavior and offers insights on alumni and fund-raising efforts extended well beyond the “institutional family.”

Durden’s chapter offers the case study of Dickinson College, founded in 1773 by the great American physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, whose 18th Century higher education vision was extraordinarily prescient of ideas that would emerge in the late 19th Century with the founding of land-grant colleges and universities. During 1999-2013, Durden brilliantly adopted the theses of Jim Collins (Good to Great, 2001) and Howard Gardner and Emma Laskin (Leading Minds: Anatomy of Leadership, 1995), “filling his senior team bus” with “creative and risk-oriented staff” who were inspired collectively through a leadership narrative well-crafted and adopted from the vision of Dickinson’s heroic founder and guided by an integrated strategic plan, which helped propel the institution into the topmost ranks of U.S. liberal arts colleges.   

In the last sentence of his chapter on “The President and the Faculty,” Harden notes, “presidents who experience the rewards of a positive relationship with the faculty are likely to have greater success and a higher degree of enjoyment in the position.”   Harden reminds us of the need for presidents to understand and respect faculty, honor their contributions, and operate self-confidently, fortified by integrity, honesty, and character, avoiding even hints of arrogance or contentiousness.

In the next chapter, Papp notes that “your board and your system CEO can be your best friend, your worst enemy, or anything in between.”  Moreover, a breakdown in these unique relationships may result from sins of omission or commission on the part of a president.  Papp references Edward Penson’s view that president-board or president-system CEO relationships are “both interrelated and interdependent.”  Thus, to be successful, the president must understand the demands among the different relationships, assisted by a series of overarching principles including: 1) devoting time and energy to the endeavor; 2) communicating effectively with no whining; 3) presenting no surprises; 4) insuring understanding of board or system CEO desires and expectations; 5) understanding responsibilities and “boundaries of authority.”

The book concludes with chapters on three “external aspects” of presidential lives: “The President and Town-Gown Relations” (Lawrence Weill, Gordon College), “The President and the Press” (S. Georgia Nugent, Kenyon College), and “The President and Unions” (Andrew Scibelli, Springfield Technical Community College).

Weill highlights the genesis of potential town-gown tensions and concerns emphasizing the importance of open and effective community relations’ efforts, with a focus on: 1) presidential visibility, 2) an emphasis on service, 3) promotion of academic culture, and 4) advancement of the community.  Weill offers illustrations under each category, including examples of student and faculty contributions to community activities and ideas for forming and evolving mutually beneficial town-gown partnerships that culturally and economically enrich communities.

As Nugent notes in her chapter on the president and the press, relations with the latter may lead to the success or failure of a college or university president.  Success is dependent on having an astute chief communications officer, understanding that “honesty is the best policy,” and putting into place policies and practices for developing outstanding rapport with “the press” at all levels. 

In his chapter, Scibelli notes that regardless of one’s personal views, presidents may seal their peril if union leadership and members are not treated with respect.  A veteran president of a unionized college and chair of a state-wide organization of unionized community colleges, Scibelli offers this advice: “Never compromise your integrity and be open, honest, and candid at all times but temper your candor with compassion and understanding.”  A president can adopt this solid set of principles to successfully work through meetings with union leadership, guide negotiations, develop tactics, and agree to off-the-record sessions between chief negotiators of a union and institution.

In concluding comments, Weill notes how presidential work and success is largely dependent on personal relationships within and outside of institutions.  But, success, in particular, requires honesty and integrity in all dealings, as emphasized in several chapters of the book.