University Leadership—More Complicated and More Critical Than Ever

In 2012, the rectors of the University of Virginia carried out a failed attempt to oust President Teresa Sullivan, demonstrating how a lack of understanding of shared governance and the importance of the internal dynamics of a university can frustrate university trustees. Bart Giamatti said that a university presidency is “a mid-nineteenth-century ecclesiastical position on top of a late-twentieth-century corporation.” While trustees have some important formal powers, most of their influence is informal and has to be navigated within the internal customs and traditions of the university. Two leaders who have navigated these dynamics successfully but in very different ways are Mark Wrighton and Gordon Gee.