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A President Mulls His Next Move

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By Joseph Drew

It's been a few months now since I wrote to the Board of Trustees at Anglo-American College in Prague, where I have been the president and am now the chancellor, to submit my resignation, effective next June.

Since then, the most important thing that I've been doing is evaluating why I want to be a college president. Career anomie can set in once you've landed a presidency. Since there is the absence of an obvious next step up the ladder, you are forced to think objectively about the job.

At Columbia University, we were taught that we should try to be "Renaissance Men." Being a college president has a bit of that. In most higher-education roles, you have to specialize, to develop a narrow, particular field of expertise on the job. As a president, you tend toward the universal. You need lots of general skills.

But there's more to it. Max Weber, the great German thinker, wrote eloquently about those who feel a "calling" for a certain profession. In my life, I have always felt the same calling, not to a particular profession, but to a life of service. In the 1960s, I was active in the civil-rights movement, especially with the Congress of Racial Equality, and later I spent a year as a VISTA volunteer in the War on Poverty. Now, having been a college president for a few years, I find that the job is a vehicle that allows me to do what I decided, way back then, that I really wanted to do: serve the community.

As a college president you can create programs, build structures, and provide opportunities that offer the possibility of positive change to people of all ages, all social conditions, and all walks of life. Education empowers people to realize their potential. It is almost always good, hardly ever bad.

Beyond all of that, I have discovered that I like the job, and I have some particular interests and skills that that enable me to do it well. Skills like building partnerships, raising money, adding new programs, resolving disputes amicably, and sharing in governance.

Taking everything into account, it seems that my wishes, abilities, and possible career opportunities all point to the same outcome: presiding over a friendly, intellectually vigorous, productive community of scholars and students somewhere in America. For me, it would be a fine next step, a continuing and rewarding experience, and a meaningful challenge.

So the question now is, Should I seek just any college presidency that comes along? Are there specific qualities I should look for in a new institution? If so, what are they? What's on my family's agenda? Will I have the luxury of making a decision based on my criteria? Can I continue somehow to work internationally with the good friends and colleagues I've made here?

With these questions in mind, what have I done, to date, in practical terms?

Well, first, I've had to devote a lot of time to trying to pass on an institution in good shape.

At the same time, a number of prominent Czechs have asked me to provide additional service to higher education in Prague. Some attractive career possibilities loom in this country, which is soon to be a part of the "New Europe" as a member of the expanded European Union. Among the requests: that I direct an important international arts and cultural institution that will be located here; that I become part of a new and exciting educational enterprise being financed by Czech, British, and American educators and philanthropists; and that I head up a liberal religious organization here. But in the end, I can only help others captain these tasks, because I intend to return home to my family and to the United States.

There are many different directions I could go in this market, and they all have their advantages. I recently visited three very nice think tanks in Washington. If a certain grant or two come through later this winter, which looks reasonably likely, one of those groups might be a great place to land. At one of them, I'd be heading up a wonderful international higher-education project on this soft money, apparently for five years. At the second, I would be running a new, Internet-based, nonpartisan research project. At the third, I would be participating in an international educational technology program.

A colleague from the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations, on whose board I sit (I'm editor of the Comparative Civilizations Review), talked about a possible professorial opportunity for me near Washington. Since I gave up tenure in order to take my current presidency, I figured that I could not get another full-time teaching post again, but perhaps I can.

And, of course, I've begun to fill out applications for college presidencies around the country and e-mail them off. For the ones I've sent, it's a waiting game. My next question is: Should I go to a professional headhunter and get some solid advice on how best to proceed?

Friends of mine who run a young and very entrepreneurial university near Washington, one that's doing very well, have suggested that next year I could join them in an administrative capacity. Last month I became a trustee of the university. This would be great, too, because I'd enjoy working with them, helping to build an expanding institution, and my family could remain at home in Washington.

As all these possibilities were starting to present themselves, I received a nice surprise. As a result of my first article, a nationally known college wrote to me. It would be a great honor to serve as president of that institution, and a lovely career move.

I think I know what I want, so I'm moving my job-hunting into full gear. In my life, it seems to be true that the Lord never closes one door but that he opens another. We have only to be optimistic and positive. Any one of the options seems great to me.