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When the Former President Hangs Around

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By Jennifer Jacobson

Before William E. Cooper accepted the presidency of the University of Richmond, he learned something that gave him pause: Two of its former presidents would be working actively on the campus. He had heard academe's war stories of presidential predecessors overstepping their bounds, or lacking any limits at all, when it came to their successors, and he wanted no part of a pretend presidency.

He took his concerns to the university's Board of Trustees, which assured him that the role of chancellor -- or former president -- was to support the president. That was four years ago, Mr. Cooper says, and today his relationship with the two works quite well: "To have two people who really walked in these shoes is a real godsend."

For other presidents, though, it can be a nightmare. Although many new and former presidents publicly paint a pretty picture of their relationships, the arrangement is actually tricky for both parties to navigate. New presidents must sometimes struggle to emerge from their predecessors' shadow while former presidents must adjust to the role of not being in charge anymore.

Asked to cite an example of a problematic power dynamic between a president and a former-president-turned-chancellor, many academics mentioned that of Jon Westling and John R. Silber. Mr. Silber was president of Boston University for 25 years and chancellor from 1996 until this past summer, when he resumed the presidency after Mr. Westling abruptly resigned. During Mr. Westling's presidency, Mr. Silber as chancellor held authority over a wide range of executive responsibilities, including long-range planning and venture-capital operations and advising the president on hiring and tenure decisions. In an e-mail message, Mr. Westling said he had no comment on the relationship.

According to The Boston Globe, it was not Mr. Silber who orchestrated Mr. Westling's resignation, but a dissatisfied Board of Trustees, which found in Mr. Silber a convenient interim replacement.

Although many new and former presidents cooperate well together, higher-education observers say, their relationships can deteriorate when the former presidents' roles are not clearly limited.

To avoid such problems, it's important "that previous presidents have boundaries around what their work is to be and that they sort of let go from an ego perspective of what [being] a president means," says Jan D. Greenwood, vice president at AT Kearney Executive Search. Meanwhile, the new president and the trustees must have a clear expectation of the new leader's relationship with the old one. In order for the relationship to work, she adds, it "takes a new president who is self-confident enough that this is not intimidating."

The title of president emeritus or chancellor, Ms. Greenwood says, is usually bestowed upon a former president for "recognition of a job well done." It's more common for former presidents to stay on at private institutions rather than public ones, she says, because private institutions historically have relied on fund raising longer than public ones and have more flexibility to create this kind of position. "The basic premise of fund raising is that people give to people," Ms. Greenwood says. So "when a president steps down, the university or president or board does not want to lose those contacts."

For new presidents, former presidents can be "a tremendous resource -- whether they had a good run or not -- in understanding the institution," Ms. Greenwood says. "They have information that will be helpful. You don't need to agree with everything they say."

Richard L. Morrill, president of the University of Richmond from 1988 to 1998, says that on his campus the tradition of former presidents watching from the sidelines goes back to 1947 when Frederic W. Boatwright, who had served as president for 51 years, retired and became chancellor. "The important thing here is that it's all a function of a local tradition, so the framework has been established through a succession of people who have been in the role," Mr. Morrill says. "It's very clear that the chancellor's position has nothing to do with decision-making." The chancellor does not receive a salary from the university, but the board provides an office and a secretary for the former leaders and invites them to be involved in life on campus.

Mr. Morrill and E. Bruce Heilman, who served as president from 1971 to 1988, share a secretary whose office is between their offices, which are across the campus from the president's office, now occupied by Mr. Cooper.

Mr. Morrill says he stepped down from the presidency because he had been a college president for 20 years (before Richmond, he was president of Centre College in Kentucky), and had always wanted to complete his career back in the classroom and writing. Last spring he taught a seminar in the university's school of leadership studies, and for three years before that he taught a required course for freshmen on great works of literature and philosophy from different cultures. This year, he's working on a book about leadership in colleges and universities, so he's not in the classroom.

Mr. Morrill did not find his transition from president to chancellor difficult because Richmond grants a paid yearlong sabbatical to former presidents immediately upon their departure. He spent his year in France, studying cathedrals. By the time he came back, "changes had been made" and "your focus is not on the past but on your own interests, your own projects."

The trustees, he says, established an endowed chair in his honor that pays him a salary and keeps him busy. From time to time he sees Mr. Cooper at campus events, such as basketball games, and at some "ceremonial involvements," such as the opening faculty meeting of the year or the opening of a new building.

Mr. Cooper describes his relationship with his immediate predecessor as "a lighthearted camaraderie." He has sought Mr. Morrill's advice on fund-raising issues, and on board issues because of his longstanding relationship with the trustees.

Having two former presidents around, he says, occasionally makes things more convenient for him. "There are days when constituencies expect you to be at three places at 3 in the afternoon," Mr. Cooper says. "It's great to have chancellors attend events that I can't attend." For example, when Mr. Cooper couldn't attend a French film festival that the university held with Virginia Commonwealth University this year, Mr. Morrill, a Francophile, attended on his behalf.

Neither Mr. Morrill nor Mr. Heilman receives an administrative salary from the university, but they do live in university-owned houses rent-free and are reimbursed for any expenses they incur on the job. The chancellor's position has no official duties, but Mr. Morrill periodically represents the president, does some fund raising, and works with higher-education associations. Mr. Heilman's responsibilities include maintaining relationships with donors he had cultivated as president, speaking at alumni meetings when asked, and serving on foundation boards that support the university. He also lectures in classes periodically and escorted 35 donors and alumni to China this summer.

Adjusting to the role of chancellor was "easy," Mr. Heilman says. "I'm not on the pedestal. I'm out of the limelight." But he remembers when he was in it and when he first met with his predecessor: "I said, 'I welcome your counsel at any time, but don't give me your advice because I would not want to turn you down.'"

As for the chancellorship, he says the most important part of it is maintaining relationships with the president and the board. It's crucial, he says, that predecessors transfer their friendships with donors to the current president. "I don't try to separate them and claim them as my own," Mr. Heilman says. "I need to help them connect [with the president] because sometimes they would rather connect with me because they know me."

Not every former president, however, wants to help a new one. Mr. Heilman, who has worked as a consultant with other institutions to help them define the role of chancellor for their former presidents, remembers a chancellor who was asked to step down after he and his spouse erroneously and repeatedly represented themselves as still being in charge. And he recalls another instance when a chancellor tried to actively unseat the president by working with the institution's board of trustees behind the scenes.

"It's attitude more than anything else," Mr. Heilman says of why the majority of these arrangements actually do work. "If one is not ready to be something other than president, that person ought not to become chancellor."

Current presidents and former ones are reluctant to name colleagues who, not quite ready to relinquish their own position, have sought to usurp their successors' authority. "I'm sure that has occurred," says David Ward, president of the American Council on Education and chancellor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. But "rather than compound the pain of those who went through this, I would rather not cite examples."

He does, however, say that it's imperative for former presidents to leave campus for a while so new presidents can take the time to establish themselves.

Sherry H. Penney served as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Boston from 1988 to 2000 and now has an endowed professorship in leadership at the university and is running its Center for Collaborative Leadership, which she founded in January 2001. She says the relationship between a former leader and a new one is like walking a fine line. "I think she knows I'm always available," if she needs me, Ms. Penny says of her successor, Jo Ann M. Gora. Former presidents who enjoy what they are doing will have neither the time nor the inclination to interfere, she says.

Richard A. Gustafson, president of Southern New Hampshire University since 1987, will focus on fund raising for the university when his successor comes along next year. He will step down at the end of this academic year to become president emeritus for a maximum of two years to assist with the new president's introduction to key administrative leaders and professional associations. He will also work in the development office at a reduced salary, which he would not disclose.

He and the university's trustees decided he would stay on to ensure a smooth transition, Mr. Gustafson says. Having a former president stick around may cause some tensions, but the alternative presents problems too: That model occurs when presidents announce their departure in late summer and abruptly leave. The college then essentially shuts down to focus its attention on the search, while other things get put on the back burner, he says.

Typically, "once the new president appears, the former president promptly disappears, and the new president is sort of left with -- 'OK, where were we now?' -- trying to restart the engine." With Mr. Gustafson on board, the university hopes to avoid such a scenario.

"We're trying to make it very clear as part of the [job] description that the new president will have full authority," he says. "I will not report to the chair of the board. I will be here to support the new president in any way he or she will feel I can be helpful." And when that person is appointed, Mr. Gustafson says, he'll be away from the campus for at least two months "to allow that person to come in with plenty of breathing room in terms of getting his or her feet on the ground and establishing a leadership style."

But in considering any presidency, the University of Richmond's Mr. Cooper offers some advice: "Just make sure your predecessor and the board really understand that the sitting CEO needs to have full authority. If you don't have that agreement upfront, I would say don't take it. You can't have a two-headed president."