As More College Presidents Quit, Search Firms Prosper

When Howard University president Wayne A. I. Frederick announced in April that he wanted to retire by June 2024 after nearly a decade in the role, he joined dozens of college presidents with plans to leave their posts. Frederick, only 51, did not say why he would be stepping down, but his tenure at Howard has been peppered with public scrutiny and calls for his resignation. In 2017 and 2018, the Faculty Senate voted no confidence in his leadership over concerns that he mismanaged the university’s finances. In 2021, students staged a month-long sit-in to protest housing conditions at the Washington, D.C.-based university. Nonetheless, Board of Trustees chair Laurence C. Morse said in an April statement that “the board desired that he would have chosen to remain in office longer.”

While Frederick prepares to exit, the board has tapped search firm Isaacson, Miller to hunt for his replacement. Working with Howard—a high-profile, historically Black university that counts Vice President Kamala Harris among its alumni—is a plum assignment. Search firms are typically paid a fee equivalent to one third of the annual salary for the successor they help find, and Howard has the cash to wield high salary offers; Frederick earned more than $1.6 million in total compensation in fiscal year 2020.

Plus, for Isaacson, Miller, Howard is a repeat client. Eight in 10 of all searches Isaacson, Miller completes each year are for nonprofits or civic institutions the firm has worked with before, and business is booming in the higher education sector as Covid-19, scrutiny, scandals and a wave of retirements has turned the American college presidency into a revolving door.

In the past six months, dozens of college presidents have announced resignation or retirement plans. Boston University announced Wednesday that Robert A. Brown would retire after 17 years. Harvard University said in June that Lawrence Bacow would step down next summer, leaving the presidency of America’s oldest university up for grabs. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Tufts University, New York University, George Washington University, Ohio University, Bowdoin College, Harvey Mudd College, Smith College, and St. Olaf College are among those currently seeking a new chief executive. Dartmouth College, Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin Madison recently wrapped up searches for their newest presidents and chancellor, respectively.

John Isaacson, founder of Isaacson, Miller, has been in the industry for 25 years and said he’s never seen an exodus like this. “I don’t know how to characterize it, but it’s a sudden event,” he said. “An unusually large number of presidents have retired.”

For the companies charged with replacing all those presidents, business is good. Isaacson, Miller has grown 20% a year in the past two years—double its typical growth rate. In fiscal year 2021, the firm grossed $48.7 million, and expects to bring in $57 million to $60 million in fiscal 2022. AGB Search, a higher education-specific search firm, booked $8 million in revenues in fiscal 2022, up from $6 million the year prior, according to Rod McDavis, managing partner at AGB Search.

Covid-19 is partially to blame for the surge in presidential departures, said Jeffrey Harris, the founder and managing partner of Harris Search Associates. Many college presidents who had intended to retire or step down two or three years ago decided to stay on to see their institution through the worst of the pandemic, and now they’re taking their leave. Other, newer presidents who had planned to serve for several years more may be accelerating their departures, burnt out after a couple of years dealing with Covid-19.

“The impact of the pandemic has raised the stress level for the position, and some presidents who had planned to be in their positions for a longer period of time have reduced the time that they intend to stay in office,” McDavis said.

But even before Covid-19 ripped through college campuses, the average length of the American college presidency was on the way down. In 2011, a typical president had been in their role for 8.5 years, according to a survey from the American Council on Education. In 2016, the average sitting president had served just 6.5 years. Harris and McDavis anticipate that average tenure has fallen even further in the last five years.

“The public scrutiny of the role of a president is certainly not diminishing. If anything, it’s been expedited,” Harris said. “You have governing boards that are more vocal. Faculty and staff that are also more vocal, you have the press requesting public records more frequently—it’s a very public job.”

College presidents are now spending less time on average in their roles than other CEOs. A 2020 report by Korn Ferry found that chief executives at the top 1,000 U.S. companies spend an average of 6.9 years in their role.

Heightened scrutiny—and occasional scandal—has led to the ouster of several high-profile college presidents in the last year. Former State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras resigned after a months-long drama related to workplace misconduct allegations dating to his time in the Andrew Cuomo administration. Former California State University system chancellor Joseph Castro resigned in February after a USA Today investigation alleged he mishandled harassment and bullying complaints against a senior administrator. Mark Schlissel, the former University of Michigan president, and Mark Rosenberg, former Florida International University president, left their posts this year amid misconduct allegations.

While more frequent searches are lucrative for search firms, they are costly for colleges. Each search comes with fees to search firms, travel expenses and ever-increasing salary offers to woo potential leaders away from their current post. Most institutions don’t budget for these searches. If given enough warning, some boards may set aside funds for the process. But most often boards will pull together funding from other budget lines for a search, said Jim Hundrieser, vice president of consulting and business development at the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

“While there has been travel savings because most ‘airport interviews’ are now done via video conferencing eliminating all travel costs for first round interviews, most search firms base their fee on a percentage of the final salary of the incoming president,” Hundrieser said. “Salaries to attract presidents—or provosts or most other senior leaders—have gone up, increasing the costs.”