Higher Education Blogs | Blog U

One of the less lovely aspects of my job is talking with faculty whose promotion applications have been denied. There's usually some bitterness, occasionally some self-awareness, and, in a few blessed cases, a pragmatic approach to determine what would make a successful application the next time.And there's a lot of defensiveness.The most common defensive line is “but I've done everything you've asked me to do!” Well, yes. And that's the problem.

University presidents are a varied lot: some charismatic and charming, some dour and solid, some charlatans and others true believers. Those of us who have watched, and lived the cycle of presidential performance often wonder if there’s a predictable set of characteristics that would define the successful, triumphant institutional leader.

He was the best of us, as they say, but that’s not claiming much moral high ground. Back in what’s now called the Reagan-Bush Era, I served in U.S. Army deep-sea dive detachments at Ft. Eustis, Virginia, and Ft. Kobbe, Republic of Panama, with a good friend named Christopher D. Floro.

An adjunct, and returning correspondent, writes: