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[prof_viola]

Over the summer, my cc lost our excellent academic dean, who has moved on to a vice presidency at another cc in our state.  Our national search for a new dean will start early in 2008, and the position will be nationally advertised.  I would like to invite someone I know who works at a four year college, but is quite familiar with the mission and students of two-year colleges, to apply.  However, I'm not sure to what degree moving from a four-year college to a two-year college might "track" an aspiring administrator.  Suppose someone from a four year college did get offered and accept this job:  if such a person, down the road, wanted to shoot for, say, a VP level position at a four-year, would such a move be substantially more difficult coming from a two-year college?  Insights appreciated!

I'm asking in part because my sense is that it's harder for faculty to move from a two year to a four year than vice-versa, perhaps because of misperceptions about the quality of students and teaching at two-year colleges, perhaps because of the misperception that two-year college faculty don't do scholarship.  Conversely, at least in my own job search, I found the shift from a four-year not so difficult:  I knew and understood the two-year community college mission and did not have a hard time persuading the search committee of that.  However, I got the sense that they were more open to me as someone coming from a four-year than my previous institution would have been in looking at a potential colleague hailing from a two-year.  Of course, that could just be a matter of differences between individual institutions.  Thoughts?

[sibyl]

The same prejudices are at work for administrators, though perhaps less so.  Administrators at both types of schools need to deal with scarce resources, difficult personalities, and multiple constituencies.  But the prejudicial view is that CC administrators are less likely to know how to deal with the brilliant but difficult research scholar whose grants pull in money, the pushy and self-important helicopter parent, and the ambitious student organization seeking funding for a transformative study-abroad program.

Less prevalent but no less real is the suspicion on the part of many CC faculty and administrators that someone on the 4-year "track" is not cognizant of, or well prepared for, the special needs of the 2-year institution and will run back to the 4-year track at the earliest opportunity.  This suspicion results in creating a hurdle for people moving from 4 to 2, and most of the time these candidates have to be convincing that they are deliberately making a permanent shift to the mission of the 2-year school.

These prejudices aren't universal, but they are substantial.  And the "barrier" is more permeable at teaching-oriented institutions; the University of Chicago has yet to hire a provost out of the Maricopa CC system.  Much depends on your friend's individual circumstances, of course, but if your friend demurs you shouldn't be surprised.