The average presidential tenure has shortened by 2.6 years over the past 17 years, according to surveys from the American Council on Education.
“Now the mission of almost every college is strangled by politics,” Mr. Agresto, a former acting chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Ronald Reagan, told The Washington Times. “We have to be sure we’re multicultural enough, that our faculty is ‘diverse’ enough, that every group no matter how centrist or fringe is catered to and made ‘comfortable,’ that the latest political slogan is supported at all levels of teaching, etc.
Accelerating turnover rates mean less stability for universities since the ideal presidential term runs seven to 10 years, said Bob Dickeson, a higher education consultant and former president of the University of Northern Colorado. The Canadian-born neuroscientist will remain on the faculty of the Palo Alto, California, private research university but said it is in Stanford’s best interest for him to quit the top job.
Ms. McElroy said the president offered her a tenured position to revive the university’s journalism program, then changed it to a one-year contract without a tenure clause. She ultimately refused the job as Ms. Banks professed ignorance about the change. Berklee’s board said it was “unable to share” the reasons for Ms. Muhl’s resignation after two years on the job. She became the shortest-serving president at the school, which has had just four leaders in 78 years.