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And in Madison, University of Wisconsin Chancellor Carolyn "Biddy" Martin left in June 2011 after clashing with Gov. Scott Walker. Martin, who spent three years at Wisconsin, stepped down to take the presidency at Amherst College. The trend isn't a new one. In 2006, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers resigned after a five-year stint following a faculty no-confidence vote and a series of public missteps, including comments about the intellectual aptitude of female scientists that some viewed as sexist. Molly Corbett Broad, a former University of North Carolina system president who now leads the American Council on Education, said university governing boards "have become much more politicized." She said they're wrapped up in power struggles with campus presidents who can't
-- or won't -- always mollify the competing interests of board members while also remaining attentive to students, parents, donors, professors and politicians forced to cut public spending on higher education as many states struggle to emerge from the recession. "A president really cannot succeed in leading unless she has a working majority of those constituencies," she said. "And their interests are not typically aligned." "Each of these constituencies play different roles in the life of the university, and it's the president's job to keep them reasonably together," she added. Trachtenberg, now a higher education consultant with Korn/Ferry International, said the job of university leader remains an attractive one, despite the higher stakes and declining job security. The average public university president earned $421,395 in salary and other compensation in 2010-11, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. And some, such as Ohio State University's Gordon Gee, who brought home $1.992 million in total compensation last year, earn significantly more. But the quality of applicants, on the whole, is not as good these days as even a few years ago, Trachtenberg said. "Is it harder to find people who want the jobs? No," Trachtenberg said. "Is it harder to find people who deserve to get the jobs? Yes."
Trachtenberg, whose forthcoming book examines failed university presidencies, compares the job of running a campus to the work of hapless Russian sleigh drivers trying to keep the wolves at bay while crossing Siberia. "The job of a university president is like driving a troika across a snowy field being chased by wolves, and you have to keep a hamper of lamb chops," he said. "You threw lamb chops off behind you, and the wolves stopped to eat and you got ahead. When they started pursuing again, you threw more lamb chops. "When your hamper is out of lamb chops, when the resources are diminished, you have less ability to slow down all the stakeholders, all the constituents
-- all the wolves -- that are running after you."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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