Selecting and Evaluating College Presidents

During the past year a national trend has started to accelerate and it is expected to continue over the next two to three years at least. An example in California is that more than half of the California Community College Districts will be facing not only a difficult budget year but also the additional responsibility of employing a new Chancellor, Superintendent/President, or President. The need to find and employ someone, who is both talented and communicates well with the Board, requires the Board to carefully evaluate the candidates. The CEO employment decision is probably the most critical decision a Board has to make as it will affect the entire District.

Recently a colleague, Mark Tanaka, a Trustee from the Riverside Community College District, suggested I read a book entitled “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis. I did read Moneyball and came away thinking how such a program could apply to community college leadership.

I have been troubled for sometime about how little data is actually used in the selection process of a District CEO. Therefore, the following paper suggests that just as the General Manager of the Oakland A’s has looked for alternative measurements to evaluate new ball players that our Boards of Trustees need to also look to new measurements to use are part of the selection process and evaluation process of CEO’s (President / Superintendents or Chancellors).

Michael Lewis has described in his book how the General Manager of the Oakland A’s, identified different measurements that relate to the success of a baseball team and how such data can be used in the selection of players. Baseball scouts are criticized for making recruitment decisions on how a ball player looks rather than by the data concerning the player’s performance. I think Trustees also use very little data in selecting a CEO. Trustees do ask about the candidate’s educational success, their occupation experience, and community participation (usually from a resume), and some colleges will rely in part upon a professional recruitment firm to offer recommendations. However, trustees normally don’t review performance data about a candidate’s past employment. Campus and community interviews shed some light on the matter but we still do not have hard facts.

The kind of data I am suggesting we consider in our reviews relate to five major areas:
1) Financial Management
2) Faculty / Staff Development
3) Community / student service
4) Application of Innovated practices
5) Faculty Leadership

The most easily accessible data about a candidate’s performance to gather will be the financial data of the candidate’s previous institution and examples of what we could ask about are as follows:

1) Classroom/Instructor efficiencies (have these numbers improved or declined during the President’s term of office in their last position).
2) Fund Balances (again, has the college’s financial position improved or declined during the President’s term of office).
3) Percent of the General Fund budget applied to cost of personnel during the President’s term of office (has the percentage increased or decreased).
4) Operational cost per student FTE (what was the increase or decrease during the President’s term).
5) Percentage of growth in non-state dollars in the college’s budget during the President’s term of office (increased or decreased).
6) The facility condition index for the college at the beginning and at the end of the President’s term of office in the last college (did it increase or decrease).

In the area of Faculty and Staff development we could ask for data regarding the following issues:

1) Percentage of faculty participating in professional development programs / projects.
2) The number of faculty participating in sabbatical leaves and new programs resulting from such leaves.


In the area of Community and student service the data could be as follows:

1) The percentage growth in community education programs
2) The percentage growth in contract education programs and income to the college.
3) The percentage growth in students qualified for community specific employment.
4) The performance of the College’s outreach programs to students of colors or from economically disadvantaged areas.

In the area of innovations the Governing Board could review the following types of data:

1) Number of process improvement programs initiated and implemented in the College.
2) Types of service improvements implemented in the past 3 years at the College.

A Board is not recommended to use all the above questions, rather the Board should identify prior to starting the recruitment process, the key qualifications and talents it will need in a new CEO. The needed talents and qualifications will change over time as the needs of the District change. Some Districts may need a new CEO that is very talented in fiscal affairs, or at another time, the new CEO should be talented in the area of employee issues, and at another time the key talents should be in the area of facilities and new construction. Once a District has identified the key qualifications and talents it needs in a new CEO, the Board can structure its recruitment notices to describe the key qualifications and talents it is seeking. This will help candidates choose whether to apply or not for the vacancy.

The list of key qualifications and talents can also be used by the Board to determine what type of data it should seek about the candidate and questions to be used in the interview process. There are private recruitment services available to assist Districts in this process. If a private consultant is used, the District should be sure that the consultant will provide a report about each candidate that provides data about the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses in the areas of importance identified by the Board. The Board should demand data that is similar to the types provided in this report.

As in baseball, a Board can improve the selection of a CEO by using data about the candidate’s prior performance and by structuring the recruitment process to identify and measure the key talents and qualifications needed by your District.