Boards must ‘keep out of day-to-day operations’, says president

Being a leader of a US university has become “more challenging than it has ever been”, with the political situation undermining recruitment and internal and external pressures making the job more volatile, the new president of the University of Washington has warned.

Robert Jones, who took over at the highly ranked Seattle institution in August last year, said one of the key features of the US system has always been a strong partnership with the federal government which has helped deliver cutting-edge research.

“That’s why students from around the world beat a path to our doors largely because of the quality of the education that we provide, and a lot of that quality is not only based on what’s taught in the classroom, but…some of the individuals who do the research and the innovation,” he told Times Higher Education.

“That has helped drive economic vitality and prosperity across the nation and across the world.”

But he warned that the US’ status as the “envy of the rest of the world” was under threat from federal cuts and falling international student numbers amid an immigration crackdown from the White House.

UW, which was ranked 25th in Times Higher Education’s latest World University Rankings, saw overseas enrolment fall by 7 per cent last year to its lowest level for eight years.

“Having international students on our campus is a critical part of the educational experience for all of our students,” added Jones.

“We stand to lose a lot if we don’t right-size our globalisation initiatives, and help the federal government think differently about the importance of these relationships and providing this thing we call soft diplomacy.”

University leaders, including Jones, are also facing growing demands from students to stand up to the Trump administration publicly, and issue statements against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

But Jones, who specialised in the field of crop physiology, said he had learned from his 46 years in higher education that public statements are “not as effective as people think they are”.

“We’re very, very clear about when we speak about issues, we only speak about those issues that have a direct impact on the university.

“But we also communicate strategically with different constituency groups to try to assuage misinformation and stuff that’s posted on social media that is absolutely not true.”

Jones, who has previously served as chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and as president of the State of New York University at Albany (SUNY Albany), said “unprecedented challenges” were putting increased scrutiny on leadership positions.

“People think long and hard about whether they want to step into these volatile, somewhat unsettling positions and circumstances in the higher education system.

“There’s a lot of dynamics that have transpired, particularly in the last 25 years, that make these jobs more challenging, perhaps, than they’ve ever been before.”

Already an “extremely difficult” job, Jones said leaders also had to put up with governing boards that are increasingly moving away from their role as trustees and interfering in university processes – something he was keen to avoid in taking the UW role.

“These folks have demonstrated over the decades with my predecessor Ana Mari Cauce, that they hire the president, they hold that individual accountable, but they fundamentally have done a very good job of not getting in the weeds of the day-to-day operation of the university.”

The vision that Jones outlined to the university board before his appointment focused on access and affordability, building “radical collaborations” between the university and peer institutions, and rethinking the relationship between the university and local communities.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com