GroshLink

The university as a business, recently touched on this with Tuition Rise Tops Inflation, but Rate Slows, Report Says, continues to receive press with Presidents of Colleges Cite Finances as Main Issue. Regretfully, I've seen this to be the case. My ideal of a president who sets overall academic direction for the institution, serves as a mentor to professors and students, teaches a class or guess lectures periodically, seems to have faded to the past. For my encouragement, please post examples where this is to some degree the case.

College presidents are more preoccupied with financial issues than educational ones, according to a new survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The presidents said they believed they were judged slightly more on whether they had a balanced budget than for the quality of educational programs. Five of the six top concerns they cited related to money: rising health care costs, rising tuition, financial aid, technology costs and inadequate faculty salaries. The sixth was retaining students.

"While the job of college president is often still filled by former provosts, their top priority these days is more akin to that of a chief financial officer," The Chronicle says in its Nov. 4 issue, available this week.