Presidents: 3 Constructive Ways to Spend Your Summer
As a lifelong Midwesterner, it was natural over my 45 years in higher education to develop a fondness for the seasonality of the academy’s work....
As a lifelong Midwesterner, it was natural over my 45 years in higher education to develop a fondness for the seasonality of the academy’s work. Like author Charles Bowden, who romanticized summer as “the best of what might be,” I looked forward to the conversations, reading, and reflection that would rekindle optimism for a new year.
I carried these sentiments with me into a long presidency. Then, over a decade into my tenure, a two-year budget impasse among Illinois officials triggered a shift. At stake was support for the state’s largest need-based scholarship program. In a university with many first-generation students, this amounted to approximately $8 million.
In a sense, that time was a prelude to this time. The confusion and fear swirling around the conflict impacted students, families, and governing boards and posed a potential threat to financial viability in an enrollment-dependent private university. Meanwhile, the ongoing exodus of students to colleges in other states accelerated and candidates for key positions voiced concerns about the climate for higher education in Illinois. As president, I could not impact the political paralysis, but I could mobilize resources to develop the strategies crucial to continued fulfillment of our mission in a rapidly changing and often chaotic environment. And with that realization came a change in my thinking about the summer ahead.
Drawing upon my experience, allow me to offer advice for today’s presidents as they look to set their summer 2025 agendas. I encourage them to keep three goals in mind: to engage the university community in a scenario planning initiative, to deepen key external relationships, and to communicate regularly with members of the extended institutional family. Here goes:
1. Embrace the Power of Scenario Planning
I was a history professor and faculty president before I agreed to serve as vice president for planning at a Wisconsin liberal arts college. Consequently, I’ve facilitated development of many higher education strategic plans. Given today’s circumstances, there simply is too much uncertainty for such an approach to be useful. I think here of a comment made by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, “Things have never been this fast before . . . and they will never be this slow again.”
This is, however, a perfect moment to employ a different methodology. Scenario planning is the process of anticipating and preparing for what cannot be controlled. The purpose of such an effort is to sketch a limited number of alternative futures and then to develop strategies to advance the organization in each situation. Such a model is well-suited for the summer of 2025, when leaders across higher education must chart pathways in anticipation of the 2025-2026 academic year. Why is such an approach helpful now?
- First, the goal is to focus only on what would be significant for your institution. As president of an independent teaching university with a diverse population, I would focus during the summer of 2025 on federal financial aid programs, immigration-related activities, and family financial resilience.
- Second, a scenario planning process lends itself to participation by stakeholders with varying perspectives. In a cultural setting where process is sometimes as important as outcomes, this is a strong advantage.
- Third, the process invites participants to learn more about what is happening beyond the campus. This knowledge is an important addition to the institutional asset base that you can draw upon to stimulate innovation.
- Finally, while some campus-based planning initiatives require months to unfold, this model lends itself to realistic time constraints.
By launching such an effort this summer, a president can communicate important messages about intentionality, empowerment, and unity during a complicated and confusing time.
2. Invest in Strengthening Governance Relations
Some colleges and universities have government relations officers. I offer the wording above to suggest something different. I think that this is a time for presidential engagement in crucial conversations with select external professionals – partners in key initiatives, accreditation liaison officers, elected officials and their staffs, investment managers and commercial bankers, and peers at other institutions – whose decisions may have an impact on your university or college. Reciprocity here is important. Your goal is to solicit information and counsel as you also share your own organization’s story and deepen the working relationship.
3.Communicate and Then Communicate Some More
This is a moment when the president’s leadership voice is vital. And admittedly there are risks. What I have in mind, however, is straightforward and simple. In truth, it is more about being present than sharing an opinion or expounding a viewpoint. Here’s a quick list of suggestions:
- Share with members of your college of university community the decision to initiate a scenario planning process. Help them understand how this effort may differ from prior experiences. Invite engagement.
- Communicate about your own professional outreach efforts. Here you have a chance to educate about the stakeholders with investments in your organization and to demonstrate your own active agenda.
- Attend orientation sessions and receptions for new faculty and maintain a regular alumni and donor travel schedule. Think about hosting a late-afternoon ice cream social to thank colleagues for their commitment.
- Consider introducing your own monthly newsletter. Don’t envision a heavily curated publication, just a vehicle that arrives regularly to remind prominent stakeholders that you are thinking about them and want them to think about your organization.
- As you develop your news updates, remember to produce “bites” that you can share via social media with students and others. This is a good time to increase your presence appropriately.
Like many Midwesterners, I’ve always seen summer as a special gift. At the end of a long, complicated academic year, the summer of 2025 is a particular boon. I encourage you to draw inspiration from Henry David Thoreau’s comment on the season, “One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter.” Good counsel right now.
Rebecca Sherrick, PhD, is a Senior Advisor with WittKieffer and served for more than two decades as president of Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois.
