In my radio days, we had a running joke about a “collision mix.” That was when two songs played back-to-back made absolutely no sense next to each other. Sometimes they were intentional, but mostly they resulted from us having more enthusiasm than competence.
I had a collision mix this week reading two articles about college vice presidents. The more recent one from Community College Daily (published by the American Association of Community Colleges), addresses how important, but difficult, it is to find and keep good vice presidents and deans. It lists multiple skill sets and nods toward economic circumstances, but seems determined to put a happy face on what is actually a much more complex challenge.
The other ran a few months ago in IHE. In conversation with Rachel Toor, serial president Gordon Gee offered this:
In my experience, any new president—particularly one coming from the outside—needs to think very carefully, and fairly quickly, about building their own team. I would almost always replace the provost, because any good provost sitting there really wanted my job and was disappointed not to get it."
Source: Inside Higher Ed — Read the full article on the original site ↗