major universities preparing people,
you’re going to have a falsity and a
dearth of people moving forward.
There will be candidates,” he says, “but
they won’t be well prepared.”
The Importance of Mentors
Full-scale leadership programs are valuable. But there isn’t always room for
them in the budget. What can colleges
with limited means do to better prepare
future leaders? Mentorship programs,
with both appointed and unofficial
mentors, are an important step.
Narcisa Polonio, vice president for
education, research, and board leadership services at the Association of
Community College Trustees, says
mentoring should always be a part of
the community college leadership training equation. “There’s no substitute
for someone in a higher-level position
that you respect asking, ‘Have you ever
considered becoming a VP, dean or
president?’, and saying that they
believe you have what it takes. That
kind of personal reinforcement is
extremely valuable,” she says.
Several community colleges have
begun to explore this approach, allocating—and, in some cases, mandating—
mentorship as part of their leadership
training efforts. Two such efforts
include the Thomas Lakin Institute
for Mentored Leadership, which prepares African-American senior-level
executives for positions as community
college CEOs, and leadership institute
training programs at Bryn Mawr
College in Pennsylvania, which focus
on mentoring women.
Many community colleges start
grooming leaders right on campus. “I’m
a big proponent of creating your own
leadership program,” Polonio says. “You
can call a president and ask if they can
spend a day with you. Look at the college as a place of learning—get the vice
president of academic affairs together
with faculty and aspiring administrators and give them a bird’s eye view of
what he does, his background. That’s
wonderful information to share.”
William Wojciechowski, president of
Pratt Community College in Kansas,
who will retire this year after 25 years
of service, agrees. While at Pratt,
Wojciechowski says he has made a point
of providing opportunities for aspiring
community college leaders, often
assigning challenging tasks to junior
administrators in the hopes that they
might develop the skills to eventually
make larger institutional decisions.
“I see my role as being more of a
mentor and a facilitator rather than a
leader in those situations,” he says. “I
think it’s important that we provide
that to our younger administrators and
give them that opportunity, because
it’s the only way that they’re going to
grow.”
In addition to mentoring, Wojciechowski says a strong relationship with the
community college board of trustees is
equally important—because the trustees ultimately will choose a successor.
Given the shortage of well-prepared
available candidates, he says, that task
has become more difficult.
“When I first applied for this job,
there were 71 candidates,” Wojciechowski
recalls. “I’ve followed over the last
few years what’s happening at other
colleges and I find that the number of
applications for these high-level jobs
is sometimes cut in half. That’s a trend
we’re going to see for a while.”
Though the available pool of candidates might be shrinking, Thornton
says the onus is on community colleges
to foster and promote leadership within
their ranks.
“We have an obligation to our
employees to help them grow as much as
they can and be competitive,” she says.
Resources for
Aspiring Presidents
Looking for leadership training
programs to promote advancement
within your institution? Here are a few
programs that might help.
AACC Leadership Suite: John E.
Roueche Future Leaders Institute and
Future Presidents Institute
www.aacc.nche.edu/leadershipsuite
The University of Texas at Austin,
Community College Leadership
Program
www.utcclp.org
Thomas Lakin Institute for
Mentored Leadership
theprt.pgcc.edu/LakinInstitute.aspx
Harvard Graduate School of
Education, Institute for Educational
Management
www.gse.harvard.edu
Iowa State University, Community
College Leadership Program
www.cclp.hs.iastate.edu
Oregon State University, Community
College Leadership Program
education.oregonstate.edu/community-college-leadership-program
