From Rachel Toor
Those of us who are cheered about recent events in the national political landscape know what's to come: increased scrutiny on what it means to look "presidential." Plenty of higher ed leaders are all too familiar with this kind of attention.
One president talked about what it's like to live in a college town, aware that she is recognized when she goes to Target with unwashed hair tucked under a baseball cap and wearing workout clothes. She said she's decided she has to be okay with that.
She also said that there's a photo of her captured in a moment of spontaneous joy where she doesn't look at all presidential. To her surprise, she got a huge number of compliments on that image. People said, "You're so real."
What does it mean to seem "real" and why do we buy into ideas of what "presidential" looks like? Maybe as we move from a model of bow-tied older dudes in suits, presidents will look more like, well, America.
Though it's not going to be easy. Here's a note I got recently:
I feel the need to gather all my strength for the coming year, not only as a college president, but particularly as a Black man who is president of a predominantly white institution. It is hard to imagine what we may have in store as we build toward the presidential election.
