A busy president, conversant with a problem and its ramifications and beset by pressures to meet deadlines, tends naturally to assume that others must be as familiar with a problem as he is. The need for interchange and understanding makes vital the full use of all methods of consultation. To increase faculty influence and decrease tension, many presidents have established a standing advisory committee with which they can discuss problems frankly. Success will require tact, sensitivity to faculty prerogatives, patience, and persistence. The critical task for every president and his academic administrative staff is to assure that the college or university continually rebuilds and regenerates itself so that its performance will match changing social demands great professors do not automatically reproduce themselves.
Deans can form an important bridge between the president and the faculty.
They serve not only as spokesmen for their areas, but they also contribute to top-level decision making. The president who appoints strong men who have an all-college or university point of view and a talent and respect for administration can count on useful assistance. Faculty members depend on their department chairmen to promote their interests with the administration. The administration at the same time, looks to the chairmen for strategic aid in building stronger departments. One way that this can be done, other than by hiring new high-priced professors, is by constantly encouraging the department members to raise their standards of performance.