Editor’s Note

Two Steps Forward…
Frank Shushok, Jr.

“…asking big questions and trying to solve daunting problems—and not getting them right—can make one feel stupid. This made sense to me, although I had never fully considered the implications of this reality. But Schwartz argued that feeling stupid, when rightly placed, is actually a good thing (this seemed stupid to me).”

Featured Articles

Former Duke and Wellesley President Nannerl Keohane Offers Candid Reflections on Life, Leadership, and the Promising Future of Higher Education

Nan Keohane & Frank Shushok, Jr.

Two-time university president Nannerl Keohane discusses a wide range of issues facing higher education. She talks about a Princeton study on the different leadership styles and strategies between Princeton men and women. She argues for balanced lives for both male and female educators—to include time for family, personal development and recreation, AND work.

Women at the Top: The Pipeline as Pipe Dream
Barbara Kellerman & Deborah Rhode

In rejecting the “leadership pipeline,” the idea that it will only take time to get an equitable representation of women in top leadership position, Barbara Kellerman and Deborah L. Rhode cite the continuing “depressingly low” number of women in leadership and management positions, even after decades of this conventional wisdom. They note the unconscious and systemic gender bias that causes “pipeline leakage”: double standards, in-group favoritism, lack of mentors and role models, and work/family conflicts.

In Practice

The Value of Connective Leadership: Benefiting from Women’s Approach to Leadership While Contending with Traditional Views

Adrianna Kezar & Marissiko M. Wheaton

Kezar and Wheaton describe women’s ways of leading as focusing on relationships, empowerment, and learning, but they also note that higher education has embraced a top–down, hierarchical approach to leadership in the last decade. They point out that institutions of higher education tend to be intolerant of women’s ways of leading but are faced with challenges that require those ways more than ever. Therefore, leaders must be able to balance inclusion and collaboration with pragmatic needs of an institution to be effective. They suggest connective leadership—a blending of relational and traditional approaches—as an effective response to this tension.

Bottom Line

Breaking the Black/White Binary in Higher Education Leadership

Adele Lozano

Lozano shares her experiences (and challenges) navigating Latinx issues in institutions that consider African American the default diversity category. As a result of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Lozano explains, diversity has come to mean the inclusion of black centers and administrators. Even though Latinx are the largest minoritized population on many US campuses, there is a distinct lack of Latinx representation in student affairs, especially in upper administration, leaving Latinx students feeling devalued as a group. Lozano challenges us to face the reality of the black/white binary and offers a series of questions to help educators discover if it is in effect at their institution.