Skip to main content
Home
  • Search
  • Search
  • Register
  • Log In
  • Become a Member
  • Find A Job
  • Solutions
    • Advertising & Marketing
    • Consulting Services
    • Data & Insights
    • Hiring & Jobs
    • Event Partnerships
    • Campus+
    • Menu
    • Find a Job
    • Become a Member
    • Sign up for Newsletters
    • News
    • Faculty Issues
      • Contingent Faculty
      • Curriculum
      • Teaching
      • Learning & Assessment
      • Diversity & Equity
      • Career Development
      • Tenure
      • Retirement
      • Labor & Unionization
      • Shared Governance
      • Academic Freedom
      • Research
      • Books & Publishing
    • Students
      • Academics
      • Graduate students and Postdocs
      • Retention
      • Financial Aid
      • Careers
      • Residential Life
      • Athletics
      • Free Speech
      • Diversity
      • Physical & Mental Health
      • Safety
    • Diversity
      • Race & Ethnicity
      • Sex & Gender
      • Socioeconomics
      • Religion
      • Disability
      • Age
    • Admissions
      • Traditional-Age
      • Adult & Post-Traditional
      • Transfer
      • Graduate
    • Tech & Innovation
      • Teaching & Learning
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Digital Publishing
      • Data Analytics
      • Libraries
      • Administrative Tech
      • Alternative Credentials
    • Business
      • Financial Health
      • Cost-Cutting
      • Revenue Strategies
      • Academic Programs
      • Physical Campuses
      • Mergers & Collaboration
      • Fundraising
    • Institutions
      • Research Universities
      • Regional Public Universities
      • Community Colleges
      • Private Nonprofit Colleges
      • Minority-Serving Institutions
      • Religious Colleges
      • Women's Colleges
      • Specialized Colleges
      • For-Profit Colleges
    • Governance
      • Executive Leadership
      • Trustees & Regents
      • State Oversight
      • Accreditation
    • Government
      • Politics & Elections
      • Supreme Court
      • Student Aid Policy
      • Science & Research Policy
      • State Policy
      • Colleges & Localities
    • Workplace
      • Employee Satisfaction
      • Remote & Flexible Work
      • Staff Issues
    • Global
      • Study Abroad
      • International Students in U.S.
      • U.S. Colleges in the World
    • Opinion
    • Views
      • Intellectual Affairs
    • Career Advice
      • Conditionally Accepted
      • Seeking a Faculty Job
      • Advancing in the Faculty
      • Teaching
      • Seeking an Administrative Job
      • Advancing as an Administrator
      • Diversity
      • Carpe Careers
    • Blogs
      • Alma Mater
      • Beyond Transfer
      • Blog U Special: Apple's Announcement
      • College Ready Writing
      • Construction Trumps Disruption
      • Conversations on Diversity
      • Digital Tweed
      • Education in the Time of Corona
      • Getting to Green
      • GlobalHigherEd
      • GradHacker
      • Hack (Higher) Education
      • Higher Ed Mash Up
      • Library Babel Fish
      • Mama PhD
      • Minor Details
      • Peaks and Valleys
      • Prose and Purpose
      • Reality Check
      • Rethinking Higher Education
      • Sounding Board
      • Statehouse Test
      • Student Affairs and Technology
      • The Education of Oronte Churm
      • The World View
      • University Diaries
      • Call to Action
      • Confessions of a Community College Dean
      • Higher Ed Gamma
      • Higher Ed Policy
      • Just Explain It to Me!
      • Just Visiting
      • Law, Policy—and IT?
      • Leadership & StratEDgy
      • Leadership in Higher Education
      • Learning Innovation
      • Online: Trending Now
      • Rethinking Research Communication
      • -------------
      • Resident Scholar
      • University of Venus
    • Letters
    • Opinion
    • Hubs
    • Student Success
      • Student Voice
      • Academic Life
      • Health & Wellness
      • The College Experience
      • Life After College
    • Special
    • Podcasts
      • The Key
      • Academic Minute
      • Campus
      • The Pulse
      • Weekly Wisdom
    • Reports & Data
    • Events
    • Quick Takes
    • Solutions
    • Advertising & Marketing
    • Consulting Services
    • Data & Insights
    • Hiring & Jobs
    • Event Partnerships
    • Campus+
    • More
    • Post a Job
    • Campus
    • About
    • Contact Us
Insider Dashboard
  • About Membership
  • The Sandbox
  • Webcasts
  • Reports
  • About Membership
  • The Sandbox
  • Webcasts
  • Reports

This resource is available only to Insider members

The Sandbox newsletter is an exclusive benefit of our paid Insider membership. Insiders have access to a unique blend of exclusive data, analysis and emerging best practices. Explore the member benefits here.

March 02, 2024

We Don't Trust People We Don't Know

On playing nicely with others.

By  Rachel Toor

The Sandbox

Inside Higher Ed Insider
An Illustration of leaders shaking hands in a sandbox.

From Rachel Toor

I hear this all the time: no matter what role you've had before, you don't know what it's like to be president (or chancellor) until it's your butt in that seat. I suspect it's a little like Alice finding herself in Wonderland:

“She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people."

Leaders talk about this duality, of pretending or needing to be two people, one on each side of the comma that separates a job title from a proper name. 

Not long ago I heard a leader, who, when asked about work/life balance, said she found it more useful to think about find work/life integration. My hunch is the key is to know who you are, where you are, and whom you serve.

The writer is a current president

Of course, there have been periods of great campus unrest in the past. Before some of my younger presidential colleagues were even born, protesters burned down campus ROTC offices, National Guardsmen killed students at Kent State, and the civil rights movement and desegregation made some campuses look like an Army encampment.  

Presidents are optimists and cheerleaders by nature. Aware that negative stories might hurt our institutions—and our reputation as leaders—we downplay our struggles and remain upbeat in the face because we must and, for most of us, it’s simply our nature. We breeze over even our toughest problems, even when gathered with each other.  

But recently I have seen my colleagues utterly deflated. They describe not sleeping, feeling that the joy has gone out of the job, and when in a meeting one mustered a “Listen, I’ll be okay” as he shared his anxiety, another responded with “Well, I’m not at all okay.” Presidents didn’t used to talk this way.  

“Joyless” seems an apt term for today’s leaders.

The presidency has always had quiet casualties. We all know colleagues who drink a bit too much. Marriages dissolve under the pressures of the job. Too much eating and too little exercise have resulted in health outcomes nobody desires. Aside from the occasional obsessed faculty member, rarely were there people actually gunning for you personally. That’s no longer the case.

Expertise and wisdom are no longer respected, nor, in an age of deepfakes, can you believe what you read. The public trust and support for higher ed has melted along with the glaciers, and at an even faster rate. To the extent we are the living logos of our institutions, trust and support for us has also steeply declined. That we get paid so well these days isn’t earning us a lot of allies either.

I come from a demographic that has received more leeway. I’m more Marcus Welby, M.D., than a Shondaland doc, though I make it a point to stay ahead of trends and guide my institution toward innovation. My presidency has been long, and the truth is, I can see the exit approaching. 

About my junior colleagues, especially the group who came into office when there was no one in office (the pandemic presidents), I wonder: do people know who you are as a human being? Have you found ways in this TMI Instagram age to share who you actually are, or does your social media look like a curated commercial for your school?

Do people on the lower rungs of the organizational ladder feel like they matter to you?

Do you know about the families and personal stories of faculty leaders, student leaders, and other key stakeholders?

We have entered an age of relational leadership in which intellectual track record and institutional pedigree carry less weight, while authenticity and a big heart are what garner support.  

It’s human connections that bring joy back into the work. Most presidents I know say the thing that makes them happiest is, and no surprise here because most of us started out teaching—are the students. 

I think presidents can start to be more authentic in their leadership. The tools that led previous generations to these roles—vision, competence, academic prowess, and alpha-dog confidence and even competitiveness—may not be the tools now needed for these roles. 

Tomorrow’s presidents will need to lead differently because the old ways are failing us.

The writer is a current president

When I became a provost, I had a fabulous boss who had been a provost before becoming president.

On my first day on campus, he told me he wasn’t going to try to be provost. That was my job. Faculty wouldn’t be able to maneuver around me. He wouldn’t second guess my decisions, but he would make himself available anytime I wanted to run something past him. 

It worked well for the years we were together.

So, when I became president of another college, I learned from his example and was determined not to act as provost. 

My mistake was in underestimating how important it was for me to get to know the faculty and for them to get to know me. 

The process that led to my appointment had been completely confidential. A handful of faculty on the search committee had learned about me during the process, but the rest had never even met me. They didn't know about my passion for the institution, my commitment to the liberal arts, my focus on student learning. 

I spoke about all of those things during my installation speech, but I suspect what I said didn’t matter much. In the press of managing a schedule whose rigors threatened to overwhelm me, getting a financial plan in shape, and adjusting to life in the fishbowl of the president’s house in a relatively small town, I didn’t return to those topics often enough in my first couple of years. 

Sure, I had receptions for small groups of faculty at the president's house throughout my first year, but those conversations were never substantive enough to build relationships. 

Faculty leadership didn’t think the president should attend faculty meetings. I had to insist that I couldn’t represent their needs and hopes if I couldn’t hear their discussions. Finally, I forced the issue by pointing out that I had a tenured faculty appointment. That went over as well as you might expect. No, I wasn’t invited to speak.  

What I realized later is obvious. Faculty wanted to know who I was, and they wanted to know I valued who they were and the work they did. We don't trust people we don't know. 

I had never encountered this problem before. At other institutions, when I was provost, while faculty didn't always like what I was doing, they understood. We had direct and open lines of communication. We knew each other.

As president, I had to own difficult decisions that directly impacted real people’s lives. Real people who didn’t know me, and because they didn’t know me, didn’t think I cared. I knew I had to change that, so I took some extra time while working on my self-evaluation for the Board that year to try to figure out where I had gone wrong. How could the faculty so fundamentally misunderstand me? Because I had never given them a chance to get to know me.

So, I decided that every time I received one of their nasty-grams via email (things they would only say by email, not to my face), I would get up from my desk and walk to their office to have a conversation about their concerns. The first couple of people were pretty shocked to see the president at their door, but we had productive conversations. The word got out (of course!), and those nasty emails became less frequent, replaced by meaningful discussions before issues got hot.

I also pressed for opportunities to speak at faculty meetings. When I was given ten minutes, I chose one particular topic to address at each meeting for about five of those minutes and then took a few questions. That willingness to respond to questions from the floor went a long way toward building trust. When we relaunched social gatherings at the president’s house, they were open question and answer sessions.

I continued to be careful about not getting into the provost’s space, but the faculty came to know me as a person. They still didn’t like every decision I made, but they had a better understanding of why I had made the decision.

I’ve just moved into a new presidency and am working closely with the provost to identify ways to get to know the faculty and for them to get to know me. I don’t want to repeat that first experience. It’s difficult to move into and immediately lead a new community. I know now that a great deal of my early work has to focus on building relationships.

It’s essential that a president not try to do the provost’s (or anyone else’s) job. But I also learned that a title alone does not confer authority or inspire confidence. Though I had long been a faculty member, I was no longer, and I was an outsider. 

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested in reading The Sandbox. To sign up for this Saturday morning email and other benefits, click here. 

JOIN TODAY

We believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We believe in access. We know the field isn’t level but think everyone should get to play—not just those with pedigrees and good breeding but also the scrappier ones who may have had a rougher start in life. This applies to institutions (community colleges as well as research universities), leaders (the Ivy-all-the-ways and those who came from less “traditional” backgrounds), and animal companions (we're not speciest).

Rufus Brady

Rufus Brady, who will soon to be shifting roles from IHE assistant copyeditor to big brother.

The Sandbox

Not your typical weekly newsletter. This is a space where presidents and chancellors can say what they really think without fear. Everyone is welcome to read, but only those who have been in the top job can submit to us. The Sandbox, by Rachel Toor, is an exclusive benefit of our paid Insider membership program.

 

 

The Sandbox Archive

Letters From Presidents to Higher Ed Critics

May 17, 2025

‘President Resigns Abruptly’

May 10, 2025

‘A Council of Sheriffs’ and Other Ideas to Help Save Higher Ed

May 3, 2025

Former Presidents Are Eager to Step Up

April 26, 2025

It’s All About the Benjamins

April 19, 2025
View All
Advertisement

Company

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Work with Us
  • History
  • Meet the Team
  • Advertise
  • Find a Job
  • Post a Job

Legal

  • Rights & Permissions
  • Privacy

Newsletter

Sign up for Newsletters

Group
Higher Education News, Opinion and Careers | Weekdays
Quick Summary of the Week's Higher Ed News | Fridays
Admissions and Enrollment News, Opinion and Careers | Mondays
Diversity News, Opinion and Career Advice | Tuesdays
Student Success News, Ideas, Advice and Inspiration | Wednesdays
Expert advice on how to succeed professionally | Thursdays

Copyright © 2025 Inside Higher Ed All rights reserved. | Website designed by nclud

  • Menu
  • Find a Job
  • Become a Member
  • Sign up for Newsletters
  • News
    • Student Success
      • Academic Life
      • Health & Wellness
      • The College Experience
      • Life After College
  • Faculty Issues
    • Contingent Faculty
    • Curriculum
    • Teaching
    • Learning & Assessment
    • Diversity & Equity
    • Career Development
    • Tenure
    • Retirement
    • Labor & Unionization
    • Shared Governance
    • Academic Freedom
    • Research
    • Books & Publishing
  • Students
    • Academics
    • Graduate students and Postdocs
    • Retention
    • Financial Aid
    • Careers
    • Residential Life
    • Athletics
    • Free Speech
    • Diversity
    • Physical & Mental Health
    • Safety
  • Diversity
    • Race & Ethnicity
    • Sex & Gender
    • Socioeconomics
    • Religion
    • Disability
    • Age
  • Admissions
    • Traditional-Age
    • Adult & Post-Traditional
    • Transfer
    • Graduate
  • Tech & Innovation
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Digital Publishing
    • Data Analytics
    • Libraries
    • Administrative Tech
    • Alternative Credentials
  • Business
    • Financial Health
    • Cost-Cutting
    • Revenue Strategies
    • Academic Programs
    • Physical Campuses
    • Mergers & Collaboration
    • Fundraising
  • Institutions
    • Research Universities
    • Regional Public Universities
    • Community Colleges
    • Private Nonprofit Colleges
    • Minority-Serving Institutions
    • Religious Colleges
    • Women's Colleges
    • Specialized Colleges
    • For-Profit Colleges
  • Governance
    • Executive Leadership
    • Trustees & Regents
    • State Oversight
    • Accreditation
  • Government
    • Politics & Elections
    • Supreme Court
    • Student Aid Policy
    • Science & Research Policy
    • State Policy
    • Colleges & Localities
  • Workplace
    • Employee Satisfaction
    • Remote & Flexible Work
    • Staff Issues
  • Global
    • Study Abroad
    • International Students in U.S.
    • U.S. Colleges in the World
  • Opinion
  • Views
    • Intellectual Affairs
  • Career Advice
    • Conditionally Accepted
    • Seeking a Faculty Job
    • Advancing in the Faculty
    • Teaching
    • Seeking an Administrative Job
    • Advancing as an Administrator
    • Diversity
    • Carpe Careers
  • Blogs
    • Alma Mater
    • Beyond Transfer
    • Blog U Special: Apple's Announcement
    • College Ready Writing
    • Construction Trumps Disruption
    • Conversations on Diversity
    • Digital Tweed
    • Education in the Time of Corona
    • Getting to Green
    • GlobalHigherEd
    • GradHacker
    • Hack (Higher) Education
    • Higher Ed Mash Up
    • Library Babel Fish
    • Mama PhD
    • Minor Details
    • Peaks and Valleys
    • Prose and Purpose
    • Reality Check
    • Rethinking Higher Education
    • Sounding Board
    • Statehouse Test
    • Student Affairs and Technology
    • The Education of Oronte Churm
    • The World View
    • University Diaries
    • Call to Action
    • Confessions of a Community College Dean
    • Higher Ed Gamma
    • Higher Ed Policy
    • Just Explain It to Me!
    • Just Visiting
    • Law, Policy—and IT?
    • Leadership & StratEDgy
    • Leadership in Higher Education
    • Learning Innovation
    • Online: Trending Now
    • Rethinking Research Communication
    • -------------
    • Resident Scholar
    • University of Venus
  • Letters
  • Opinion
    • Archive
  • Hubs
  • Student Success
    • Student Voice
    • Academic Life
    • Health & Wellness
    • The College Experience
    • Life After College
  • Special
  • Podcasts
    • The Key
    • Academic Minute
    • Campus
    • The Pulse
    • Weekly Wisdom
  • Reports & Data
  • Events
  • Quick Takes
  • Solutions
  • Advertising & Marketing
  • Consulting Services
  • Data & Insights
  • Hiring & Jobs
  • Event Partnerships
  • Campus+
  • More
  • Post a Job
  • Campus
  • About
  • Contact Us

4/5 Articles remaining
this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.