ABSTRACT
These reflections by a social psychologist on his role as university president focus on three major themes: a) factors in successfully facing and turning around institutional crises; b) a conceptual framework for understanding organizational crises; and c) a dis-cussion of ways the public and personal side of the presidency, including such matters as self-role distinctions and the author’s values, impact his work. These concepts are illustrated by the author’s leadership experiences as the president of Antioch University. The paper concludes with a discussion of the skills university presidents will need in order to be successful in the next century. The paper presents the author’s conceptual analyses both of the organizational functioning of universities and of the role of institutional presidents.
