The faces are changing, and changing rapidly, in the galleries showcasing portraits of Ivy League presidents. The 1990s saw the institution of the college presidency begin to evolve and change.
Two of the eight Ivies -- Harvard and Princeton -- are conducting presidential searches to replace their presidents, Neil Rudenstein and Harold T. Shapiro, respectively. In the much analyzed extreme example of turnover in higher education, Brown once again has a new president, prompting much speculation about the proper role and duties of a college president, as well as questions about the preferable qualities of the individuals being chosen to lead colleges.
A report in the Chronicle of Higher Education last year noted that schools are now hiring more people who have previously held college presidencies.
Gordon Gee has held the top spot at five colleges. Gee landed his new position as the chancellor of Vanderbilt after serving as president at four previous colleges, most recently stopping off at Brown from 1998-2000. His career, though still the exception rather than the rule, shows the tremendous difference between the longevity that was once the norm in college presidencies and today's standards.
Statistics from the American Council on Education, as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, indicate that in 1995, the average tenure for college presidents was 7.3 years.
This is a significantly lower number than was seen in the past at many of the Ivy League schools, where presidents lingered for decades in the early history of the schools. There are indications that the atmosphere of rapid change that has been characteristic of American corporate culture is creeping up into the ivy towers of academia.
"Gone are the days when you were a sleepy school," Harvard's Director of News and Public Affairs Joe Wrinn said.
Observers of the academic scene have noted that college presidents face a different sort of scrutiny and pressure in today's environment that may not have existed in years past.
Wrinn said an era of constant questioning exists as schools have become more complicated from legal and fundraising viewpoints. Wrinn pointed to fundraising as just one of the tasks faced by the modern college president, especially as money from federal sources dries up.
The emergence of a new type of career that takes an individual from school to school, rather than being the pinnacle point of one's service to one particular institution has received varying responses.
Commenting on the current Harvard search, Wrinn said the "right kind of person" for the job would want to stay at Harvard for a significant amount of time, to oversee the new cycle of planning and endeavors that is beginning at the university.
He declined to name specific criteria for the position, saying only that the school is seeking a "very smart, talented individual."This broad approach is evident in the job description advertising the position, "The successful candidate is expected to be a person of high intellectual distinction and demonstrated leadership qualities."
Rather than seeking someone with specific experiences or a certain type of resume, the school is conducting an extensive search that began with 500 names of individuals under consideration.
Thus, while it may be increasingly common in higher education for presidents to come from the top spot at other schools or from other positions such as provost, Harvard has not limited its applicant pool to this small category of people.
As the changing of the guard progresses at the nation's top colleges -- Georgetown is seeking a new president as well -- educators will be watching the effects of these simultaneous shakeups.
Recent appointments to presidencies of the Ivy League schools have also only challenged the concept of this position as a bastion of traditional white male leadership.
Judith Rodin, the seventh president of the University of Pennsylvania, became the first woman president of an Ivy League school in 1994. Since then, Ruth J. Simmons, the current president of Brown, has become a trailblazer, not only as the second woman to hold an Ivy League presidency, but as the first African American to do so.
In one decade, the Ivies have made great strides to catch up in the race to diversify higher education. Though the appointment of Rodin was heralded as a "first" many other women preceded her in playing significant roles in higher education outside the sphere of the Ivy League.
As early as 1978, Hannah H. Gray was serving as the president of a prominent educational institution, the University of Chicago. In contrast, within the Ivy League, sixteen years passed before Rodin's appointment. And in the late 1970s, Dartmouth was still seething with the implementation of the 1972 plan to accept women into its classrooms.
With two presidential appointments pending, and with many of the Ivy League presidents not yet at the ten-year mark of their terms -- Columbia University President George Rupp is in his eighth year, Dartmouth College President James Wright is in his third year, and Penn's Rodin is in her seventh year -- the potential for progress and change seems palpable within the sphere of one of the nation's most stoic sectors of higher education.
