Dive Brief:
- Nearly one in four higher ed administrators say they would be lawyers if they weren't working in higher ed, and another 32% said they'd be therapists.
- "Animal House" Dean Vernor Wormer, a character based on Richard Nixon, was the most popular outcome for our audience in an informal survey designed to pinpoint your fictional doppelganger, with 36% of respondents mapping to the classic movie villain.
- Respondents also tended to favor New Orleans (37%) over other major metropolises like Houston, Los Angeles and Atlanta, and the most popular summer movie pick was Harry Potter, with one-third of respondents opting for the fantasy flick.
Dive Insight:
There is "surprisingly little" consensus about what makes a good administrator, according to Harvard Business Review, but one thing is certain: Dean Wormer is not the guy you want to emulate (although there are some alternative pop culture theories which paint Wormer as a good guy, a tragic hero of sorts). However, with higher ed growing more politically contentious and with students bringing more baggage to campus, it stands to reason that the traits which make good lawyers and good therapists would also fare well in making a chief executive officer of an institution of higher learning.
For example, a lawyer is practical and decisive and able to weigh multiple sides of an issues and make decisions which will impact the lives of individuals and companies for years to come. If a college president should be expected to wade into political issues, it is understandable that some may see the legal profession as a natural alternative — indeed, whether he or she has interest in politics or not is no longer relevant, as legislators and outside agitators are bringing the fight directly to campus more and more often.
On the other side, a therapist is a good listener — empathetic and reassuring — which are important traits when dealing with students and faculty who are under increasingly more pressures than their counterparts 20 years ago. Several presidents have shared that their top concerns in the present era are more around things like comforting DACA students who are worried about their status in this country. And many have caught flak for being out of touch with student concerns and experiences, suggesting a little more empathy and a lot more listening could go a long way.