Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Kandace Hinton

Second Advisor

Laurel Smith

Third Advisor

Mary Howard-Hamilton

Abstract

A leadership crisis is occurring that holds national implications for American higher education (Arney & VanDerLinden, 2002; Bensimon, Neumann, & Birnbaum, 1989). An extensive number of retirements at multiple levels of leadership in postsecondary education has occurred, and the rate of retirement is projected to increase (Arney & VanDerLinden; Brown, Van Ummersen, & Hill, 2002; Padilla & Ghosh, 2000; Shults, 2001). This loss ofleadership will be felt most strongly with the position of president, as approximately 50% of college presidents remain in office for less than five or six years (Moore & Burrows, 2001; Padilla & Ghosh; Ross & Green, 2000). An astounding 80% of existing junior college presidents are expected to retire between 2002 and 2012, according to a study conducted in 2000 by the American Association of Community Colleges (Arney & VanDerLinden). "As many as one fourth of all US colleges and universities in any year are preparing for a presidential change, are in the midst of one or have just selected a new president" (Martin & Samels, 2004, p. 12). This study focused on understanding the multiple transitions of the presidential office from the perspective ofthree categories of internal stakeholders: cabinet members, faculty members, and professional staff The case study method was utilized to explore a deeper understanding of complex issues of multiple presidential transitions (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). Six internal stakeholders (administrators, faculty, and professional lV staff) from a single college were interviewed to ascertain their perspectives regarding the repeated presidential turnover which occurred during a five year period. Penson's (2002) six phase model "planning for transition and succession of university and college presidents" was used to guide the interview questions. Five themes emerged from the resulting data including: 1) search committee diversity and role in candidate selection, 2) the effective transition of the president into the presidency, and her/his performance evaluation throughout appointment, 3), utilization of existing campus leadership during transitional periods, 4) the role of the board of trustees in candidate search, selection, throughout appointment, and 5) the adverse impact of multiple transitions.

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