Dive Brief:
- The City University of New York (CUNY) on Wednesday announced it has chosen Queens College President Félix Matos Rodríguez to lead the 25-campus system. He will step into the position on May 1, becoming the system's first Latino chancellor.
- The position, which was the subject of a year-long search slowed by two prospects bowing out, will pay $670,000, according to The Wall Street Journal. The CUNY board was looking for a leader that would promote the system's successes, boost the number of graduates and increase the value of its degrees, all with what The Journal called "limited public funds."
- After Matos Rodríguez took the helm of Queens College, it ranked as one of the top colleges for moving students from the bottom 20% to the top 20% of income levels in the nation, according to a 2016 study. He also was president of CUNY's Eugenio María de Hostos Community College, where he helped double fundraising and increase the fall-to-fall retention rate by 11%, according to CUNY.
Dive Insight:
Budget crunches are just one of the issues making the job of leading a college or university system increasingly challenging. The position is also expected to deal with shrinking enrollment and hotbed issues such as fraternity misbehavior, sexual assault, freedom of speech disputes and campus safety.
On top of that, college presidents face additional demands from their boards and state and federal officials, as well as uncertainty about the direction the Trump administration will take on a host of issues.
College presidents are spending less time in the role amid these pressures. Their tenure dipped from an average of 8.5 years in 2006 to 6.5 years in 2016, according to data from the American Council on Education's latest American College President Study.
That could make it more difficult for colleges to fill their open positions. For instance, when the University of Minnesota was searching for a new leader, it had an applicant pool that was half of what it had been eight years earlier when the position was open.
With several chief executive posts are open at top colleges and universities across the country, more tough searches are likely ahead. Among the institutions and systems looking for new leaders are the University of North Carolina System and UNC-Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, the University of Southern California and the University of South Carolina. The University of Maryland, College Park, will also be on the hunt for a new president when its current chief executive, Wallace Loh, retires next year.