Larry Spence is the 1992 Alumni Teaching Fellow, an associate professor of political science and a Friday columnist for The Daily Collegian. I'm convinced that there is secret place near Vail, Colorado, where the country's university presidents meet yearly. Such a view makes communication between faculty and presidents difficult.
Professors are wary of presidents.
Faculty members are the worst detractors of presidential performance, rating their presidents 25 to 75 percent worse than outside observers. Presidents seem to me to overestimate their omnicompetence and ram through dubious changes when they begin their terms. Later they underestimate their authority and muddle along. By recent total, they have collectively declared that 527 institutions of higher learning rank in the top 10. As faculties know their presidents more, they like them less, according to a study by the sociologist Norman Birnbaum.