ABSTRACT
A college president’s term is shaped and sometimes defined by her or his relationship to the faculty. In an institution that practices shared governance, the president’s authority is circumscribed to allow the faculty significant control over academic decision making, whether it has to do with faculty appointments or the curriculum. The result, says Henry Rosovsky, Harvard’s long-time dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is that “A university president cannot govern without faculty cooperation.”1 William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, described how the power of the faculty limited presidential authority: “It is absurd to suppose that any president, however strong or willful he may be, can force a faculty, made up of great leaders of thought, to do his will. The president, if he has the power of veto, may stand in the way of progress, but he cannot secure forward movement except with the co-operation of those with whom he is associated.”2
