An eye-opening and at times controversial insider's look at the current state of higher education in America, from one of the nation's most distinguished and down-to-earth university presidents. At a time when daily news headlines scream of competitive college enrollments, skyrocketing tuition, campus violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and other campus scandals, the former president of The George Washington University tells it like it really is. Educated at Columbia, Yale, and Harvard universities, with a membership in Phi Beta Kappa, more than fifteen honorary doctorates, four books, and numerous published articles, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is one of the leading voices in American higher education. Here he brings his thirty years of experience, wisdom, and wit to reveal what goes on behind the scenes in the difficult and rewarding challenge of running a university. Using wonderful anecdotes from his own life, Trachtenberg explains with compassion and his trademark humor the insight he has gained from the halls of learning. For parents who will write big checks to send their sons and daughters to college, for businesspeople of all kinds looking for leadership lessons, and for anyone invested in America's system of higher education, this book is a major work about the importance of sustaining our nation's natural brain trust.
Grady Bogue, organize, classify, and explain patterns of leadership failures, drawing on firsthand testimonies from "deraileduniversity presidents, sixteen case studies in four sectors of higher education, and reviews of the scholarly literature on leadership failures in the public and private sectors.
Regardless of the pressures and problems confronting colleges and universities today, they can ill afford to assume that the only essential qualities of those chosen to be presidents are their abilities to be sound managers, institutional developers, and public relations experts. Nelson argues that college presidents must possess the capacity to use the presidential pulpit as moral leaders. Presidents are profiled as leaders who shape student character, lead campus communities, and are in the forefront of issues critical to education. From this vantage point, we can better examine the moral beliefs at the core of colleges and universities, understand and appreciate moral leadership in higher education, and consider the foundations and future of the presidency.
Leaders in the Labyrinth sheds light on how presidents conduct the influence and power of their office, especially in the use of their pulpits, how they navigate issues of political correctness, and how they hold the center of the university together, in contentious times and against competing ideological forces. Nelson has formulated a comprehensive image of the tenor, talents, and temperaments essential for todayOs presidency, for those who aspire to assume leadership in the future and for those who select the leaders of our colleges and universities.
Grady Bogue, organize, classify, and explain patterns of leadership failures, drawing on firsthand testimonies from "deraileduniversity presidents, sixteen case studies in four sectors of higher education, and reviews of the scholarly literature on leadership failures in the public and private sectors.
An eye-opening and at times controversial insider's look at the current state of higher education in America, from one of the nation's most distinguished and down-to-earth university presidents. At a time when daily news headlines scream of competitive college enrollments, skyrocketing tuition, campus violence, alcohol and drug abuse, and other campus scandals, the former president of The George Washington University tells it like it really is. Educated at Columbia, Yale, and Harvard universities, with a membership in Phi Beta Kappa, more than fifteen honorary doctorates, four books, and numerous published articles, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg is one of the leading voices in American higher education. Here he brings his thirty years of experience, wisdom, and wit to reveal what goes on behind the scenes in the difficult and rewarding challenge of running a university. Using wonderful anecdotes from his own life, Trachtenberg explains with compassion and his trademark humor the insight he has gained from the halls of learning. For parents who will write big checks to send their sons and daughters to college, for businesspeople of all kinds looking for leadership lessons, and for anyone invested in America's system of higher education, this book is a major work about the importance of sustaining our nation's natural brain trust.
Whatever Happened to the Washington Reporters, 1978–2012, is the first book to comprehensively examine career patterns in American journalism. In 1978 Brookings Senior Fellow Stephen Hess surveyed 450 journalists who were covering national government for U.S. commercial news organizations. His study became the award-winning The Washington Reporters (Brookings, 1981), the first volume in his Newswork series. Now, a generation later, Hess and his team from Brookings and the George Washington University have tracked down 90 percent of the original group, interviewing 283, some as far afield as France, England, Italy, and Australia. What happened to the reporters within their organizations? Did they change jobs? Move from reporter to editor or producer? Jump from one type of medium to another—from print to TV? Did they remain in Washington or go somewhere else? Which ones left journalism? Why? Where did they go? A few of them have become quite famous, including television correspondents Ted Koppel, Sam Donaldson, Brit Hume, Carole Simpson, Judy Woodruff, and Marvin Kalb; some have become editors or publishers of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, or Baltimore Sun; some have had substantial careers outside of journalism. Most, however, did not become household names. The book is designed as a series of self-contained essays, each concentrating on one characteristic, such as age, gender, or place of employment, including newspapers, television networks, wire services, and niche publications. The reporters speak for themselves. When all of these lively portraits are analyzed—one by one—the results are surprisingly different from what journalists and sociologists in 1978 had predicted. Praise for other books in the Newswork series: International News and Foreign Correspondents “It is not much in vogue to speak of things like the public trust, but thankfully Stephen Hess is old fashioned. He reminds us in this valuable and provocative book that journalism is a public trust, providing the basic information on which citizens in a democracy vote, or tune out.”—Ken Auletta, The New Yorker “Regardless of one’s view of American news media, one cannot help but be influenced by the information Stephen Hess puts forth in International News and Foreign Correspondents. After reading this book, it is not likely one will scan the newspaper or watch television news in the same way again.”—International Affairs Review “Readers of all backgrounds will find this a provocative text.”—The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics Live from Capitol Hill “Hess is a treasure—a Washington insider with a sharp sense of the important, the interesting, and the mythological. This book is essential reading for Hill practitioners, journalists, and scholars of Congress and the media.”—Steven S. Smith, Washington University The Washington Reporters “A meticulously researched piece of anthropology that represents the first major look at the men and women who cover the government since Leo C. Rosten’s classic 1937 book.”—Newsweek
Leaders in the Crossroads considers two intriguing issues: an exploration of the characteristics that determine success and failure in the academy's top post and the impact of that post on a college. An evaluation of the responsibilities and challenges presidents face, and how they speak and lead, is a fair way to explore realities about college presidents and their successes and failures. How do presidential leadership, rhetoric, and action connect to the fundamental beliefs and values at the foundation of the university? Are presidents able to make a difference, and if so, how do they contribute to the legacy of the university? College presidents are noteworthy leaders in and outside the gates. Deliberations about the success and failure of the presidency, and its obligation to the foundations of the academy generate more questions than answers. However, this inquiry is crucial because it sheds light on the college presidency and on its relationship to the future of the university.
Decades of Chaos and Revolution: Showdowns for College Presidents is the story and comparison of two eras in the history of higher education. The first era covers the period of the 1960s through the mid-1970s, and the second is the first decade of the twenty-first century. Both decades were marked by events that shook the foundations of colleges and universities, and society as a whole. Nelson weaves an engaging story, told through the eyes of the presidents of the institutions that were involved in the chaos of those eras. For colleges and universities and their presidents, these two decades are the toughest, most tense and demanding of times in the last hundred years, and likely in the entire history of colleges and universities in America. The enduring images are equal parts chaos and change, revolution and recovery, dashed dreams and unflagging hopes. Nelson asks, of the two eras, which faced the greater challenges? Which era required more profound leadership? And which was the more difficult and demanding of their time to navigate successfully? It is clear that Steve Nelson sees the era of the 1960s and ‘70s as the most difficult. He believes that it was the presidents of that earlier era who confronted dilemmas and controversies unimagined before and not witnessed since. Decades of Chaos and Revolution presents an insightful picture of the tension and tumult that presidents of the 1960s and ‘70s had no choice but to face. Nelson traces the roots of ideological battles in the university that have persisted over the last sixty years. He examines what worked and what didn’t in the tactics used by presidents in the face of the demands inspired by the protests and politics of the 1960s and shows how they have shaped succeeding generations of presidents. Then he unravels the parallel issues and unfinished business of the 1960s, which evolved in ensuing decades, and with which presidents in the twenty-first century must also grapple.
This book uses survey data to examine public sentiment regarding higher education, focusing on such critical issues as how universities spend taxpayer money, the pursuit of national rankings, student financial aid, and the interplay of international activities versus efforts to create "closer to home" impact. Building on their previous book Land-Grant Universities for the Future, the coauthors unflinchingly present a no-holds-barred exploration of what citizens really think about their public universities"--
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