Developing the next generation of college presidents requires a long-term strategy, said two experienced presidents, Stephen Jennings of the University of Evansville (IN) and Paul Dovre, president emeritus of Concordia College (MN), together with the recently appointed president of Hilbert College (NY), Cynthia Zane. Jennings and Zane have both been involved in CIC’s Lilly-funded program on Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission, he as a facilitator and she as a participant in 2005–2006. During the Presidents Institute session, “Preparing the Successor Generation of Presidents,” Dovre emphasized that successfully grooming a possible candidate is a long-term strategy, and involves a mix of measures that includes creating a climate for leadership development, becoming a mentor and encouraging promising staff, creating development opportunities and ­providing feedback and reflection on in-office experience, as well as cultivating leadership abilities by stimulating thoughtfulness on vocation and self-awareness.

Jennings further developed the argument that all sitting college and university presidents need to learn from long-established business practices of succession planning because “there is never a pool of potential presidential candidates rich enough.” In his remarks, he further stressed the necessary combination of active recruitment and hiring of talented vice presidents with challenging those leaders and setting them up with job descriptions that leave a lot of room for growth. Zane confirmed that it was, above all, mentors who helped her both acquire the necessary expertise and gain the confidence to see herself in the presidential role. Zane further emphasized the essential role of spouses in the process of helping a president to learn from successes and failures.