Trusteeship - November/December 2023 - 19

To draw on an example outside of SUNY, the University of Illinois
System recently hired a new head of its Chicago campus. The
first line of the search ad read, " The University of Illinois System
is conducting a national search for an individual to serve as the
next permanent chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago
and vice president of the University of Illinois System. " The heads
of the three campuses in the system also serve as vice presidents
of the system and part of the system leadership team. While this
may work better for a system with three campuses than 64, it sets
a clear expectation that the campus
head must balance the duties of chief
campus administrator with a role in
advancing the system's goals.
That visit had two purposes. The more operational aspect of the
visit was to inform the campus head of the functions performed by
the system administration, such as academic program review and
system budgeting. The other purpose, perhaps the more important,
was to build relationships between the campus head and the
system administration staff. We wanted to build a positive and
trusting relationship between the campus head and the system,
which had not always been the case.
Step 4: The Interview(s). More than
soliciting information, the questions
asked during the interview process
also send signals about what is valued
by the search committee and hiring
official and what the candidate could
expect about the role if chosen as the
successful candidate. During each
stage of the interview process (namely,
the neutral site interviews, campus
visits, and system administration
visits), a variation of the following
question was asked: " If you are the
successful candidate, how would you balance the demands (sometimes
competing) of being both the [head] of the campus as well as
part of the system's overall leadership team? "
Again, this question served two purposes. First, it allowed the
Transformation occurs
at its highest level when the
system CEO and campus head
understand their complementary roles.
When this happens, the campus head
runs the institution in line with
the overall strategy and direction
of the system, and the system CEO
identifies the agenda of service
to students and the state and advances
activities that use system assets
in pursuit of that agenda.
Conclusion
Implementing systemness is not easy
and involves much more than hiring,
but it is much more achievable when
the right individuals are on the leadership
team. It took several years to build
the SUNY process, but the outcome
was worth it. We built a team of campus
heads who valued systemness; they
said that they joined SUNY because of
it. And because they saw collaboration
as something important for their own
work, not just a bottom-down edict
that they were required to do, we began
to see presidents organically working
together to develop new partnerships.
These partnerships ranged from shared
academic programming to joint admissions
between community colleges and four-year institutions.
Leading for systemness is a skill, and the processes we've
various decision-makers to hear how an individual would approach
the work and the extent to which they had considered the duality
in the role. Second, it sent a signal to the candidates that reinforced
the system CEO's commitment to systemness and expectation
of balancing the responsibilities to lead the campus with those of
being part of the system leadership team.
As the concept of systemness began to extend beyond SUNY,
it was not unusual to hear candidates integrate the term into their
responses. Some even commented that systemness-or positive
collaboration between campuses-drew them to the position.
Once a campus head is hired, effectively managing the transition
into the new position is key. The focus will inevitably be on
getting the individual to the campus and introducing him or her
to the community. At SUNY, within the first few weeks of starting
the position, the individual was also always invited to the system
administration for a one- or two-day visit.
described allow the board to set a strategic vision for collaboration
and to build a team of leaders able to execute that vision and
believe in the value of it.
Jason E. Lane, PhD, is the incoming president of the National
Association of System Heads (NASH) and dean of the College of
Education, Health, and Society at Miami University in Ohio. His
previous roles include vice provost of the State University of New
York (SUNY) system, dean of the School of Education at SUNYAlbany,
and director of the Systems Center at the Rockefeller Institute. A
bestselling author, his books include Higher Education Systems 3.0 and Higher
Education Systems Redesigned, which explore the rise of systemness.
Nancy L. Zimpher, PhD, is interim executive director of NASH and
chancellor emeritus of SUNY, where she served as the 12th
chancellor from 2009 to 2017. Earlier, she was president of the
University of Cincinnati, chancellor of the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and executive dean of the Professional
Colleges and dean of the College of Education at Ohio State University.
Lane and Zimpher also are codirectors of AGB's Institute for Leadership and
Governance in Higher Education.
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Trusteeship - November/December 2023

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