Bacow Joins a Growing List of Higher Education Leaders Who Are Heading for the Exits | News
When Harvard’s presidential lookup committee goes to perform in the coming months, it will have some competition.
University President Lawrence S. Bacow, who declared Wednesday that he strategies to stage down upcoming yr, has joined far more than a 50 {4d1962118177784b99a3354f70d01b62c0ba82c6c697976a768b451038a0f9ce}-dozen notable higher education and learning leaders who are established to depart quickly, which includes the presidents of Dartmouth Faculty, Columbia College, Tufts College, and MIT.
Lots of specialists concur Covid-19 has played a function in spurring the departures, which will depart open up several of increased education’s best jobs all at as soon as.
“While you hope crises to arrive alongside, you really do not expect 1 that lasts two several years — and that will cause essentially the globe to be impacted in the way the pandemic did,” said former Missouri Point out University president Michael T. Nietzel. “This is of a entire distinct magnitude than would be normally anticipated.”
At minimum 50 {4d1962118177784b99a3354f70d01b62c0ba82c6c697976a768b451038a0f9ce} of the Ivy League will see a presidential changeover both this calendar year or upcoming. Dartmouth College’s Philip J. Hanlon and Columbia University’s Lee C. Bollinger each declared strategies to depart in 2023, together with Bacow. Former College of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann resigned in February to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Germany.
An array of neighborhood increased training leaders have also called it quits this yr. MIT President L. Rafael Reif and Tufts President Anthony P. Monaco — who direct Harvard’s two closest neighbors — a short while ago declared plans to depart at the close of the 2022 and 2023 educational years, respectively. The presidents of Amherst Higher education, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Emmanuel Faculty have all also announced they will exit in the coming months.
L. Jay Lemons, president of the recruiting agency Tutorial Look for, reported an array of challenges — not just Covid-19 — may lead to the mass exodus, pointing to state-amount political headwinds some leaders experience, between other difficulties.
“What may show up to be some clumping could be a little bit a consequence of Covid, but is additional most likely a bit a lot more complicated phenomenon than it may well show up on the surface area,” Lemons claimed.
Previous Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis, who leads the higher training government look for business AGB Research, mentioned the pandemic’s issues could have caused leaders to depart before than at first predicted.
“The very last two several years in greater training can be in contrast, really, to about 3 to five decades in conditions of the total of tension that persons have been less than,” he said. “The fact that quite a few of the presidents that most likely experienced prepared to serve a couple much more several years have attained a position in which they’re deciding to move down is incredibly substantially a countrywide trend.”
Some search agency executives stated the pandemic may well lead educational institutions to prioritize crisis management competencies when picking new leaders.
One more possible issue in the wave of departures: age.
The American Council on Training, a main instruction nonprofit, mentioned in its 2017 American Higher education President Study that presidents have been “slightly older” than their counterparts from 5 a long time back. The report predicted better turnover in top posts thanks to retirement and shorter tenures in the adhering to yrs.
Bacow, 70, was tapped to provide as president of Harvard in December 2018 following beforehand serving as president of Tufts. Lemons named Bacow’s tenure at Harvard an “unexpected next act.”
In the very first four years of his presidency, he steered the school by an array of crises — most notably, Covid-19 — and battled the virus twice himself.
Nietzel mentioned broader shifts in better instruction may perhaps have also influenced leaders, pointing to a rising erosion of belief in establishments — like universities.
“Major social establishments across the board have arrive underneath not just scrutiny, but confront cynicism from a big section of the public — and there is been a certain goal at elite universities in that regard,” Nietzel explained. “Harvard would be at the leading of that checklist.”
“I consider it does acquire a toll to defend universities in opposition to individuals kinds of attacks,” he stated. “Understandably, presidents get weary.”

—Staff writer Isabella B. Cho can be arrived at at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @izbcho.
