A Different Kind of Ageism?

New Kid on the Hallway and Dean Dad discuss what high-level administrators ought to look like. The discussions were sparked by a recent First Person column by Kathryn Ryan, a pseudonymous 36-year-old ex-dean who wrote about her search for a new administrative position and her decision to eliminate “all those pesky dates [from my CV] that might allow people to guess my age.”

While New Kid says she’s all for judging candidates based on their background/experience, not their age, she also admits, “I have a hard time wrapping my mind around working somewhere with a 36-year-old dean.” Read the whole post.

Meanwhile, Dean Dad, who is himself a 30-something-year-old dean, says he’s troubled by the commonly held expectation in academe that leaders must have “gray hair and an AARP card to know something about management.” Read the whole post.