Community College Journal - April/May 2013

... LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP

Succession Plan

With community college presidents retiring in record
numbers, it’s up to administrators to mentor and train
the next generation of leaders

BY CHLOE THOMPSON

Jerry Sue Thornton knows what it means to learn from experience. As she prepares to retire this summer after 21 years as president of Ohio’s Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), Thornton has had enough successes—and challenges— to span many careers.

Source: American Association of Community Colleges

Within the first few
months of her presidency, Thornton
helped pass a levy that accounted for
nearly a third of her institution’s state
funding. From her first day on the job,
she worked to earn the trust and good-
will of her local community—it was
something she would lean on through
good times and bad throughout her
career.

Her tenure produced more than 40 percent enrollment growth institution-wide, campus renovations and improvements totaling $300 million, and the lowest student tuition in Northeast Ohio.

Tri-C, like many community colleges across the country, faces a daunting task: preparing the leaders of tomorrow while searching for a new leader of its own.

“Many of us started in community colleges near the same time, around the ’60s or ’70s, and that group of leaders is beginning to retire or transition to some other things,” Thornton says.

Just how big an exodus is she talking about?

A recent report from the American Association of Community Colleges finds that 75 percent of community college presidents plan to retire within the next 10 years.

The result is a looming leadership gap unlike anything community colleges have seen in their history.

What does a community college do when its leader decides to step down?

Who, exactly, should be named to take over—to lead the college to even greater heights?

Teaching Leadership

These are difficult questions to answer. Especially in the face of budget cuts that severely limit the money colleges can invest in grooming and training future leaders.

John Roueche, president of the Roueche Graduate Center at National American University in Texas and founder of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin, says the challenge is compounded by the fact that fewer traditional colleges and universities offer the leadership training and

(top) Tri-C President Jerry Sue Thornton (left); (bottom) Pratt Community College President William Wojciechowski (far left).

75%

Percentage of community college presidents who plan to retire in the next 10 years.

education necessary for aspiring college presidents.

“So many of the major universities
that used to prepare school superinten-
dents and community college presi-
dents have disengaged and aggregated
their responsibilities to prepare leaders
for their institutions,” he says. “They
have reduced their capacities, they
have downgraded their faculty appoint-
ments, and the problem has just gotten
worse.”
Roueche is working with National
American University to launch a hybrid
doctorate in community college leader-
ship that will include a combination of
face-to-face and digital instruction from
world-class educators.