Adam Schwartz: College Presidents & CEOs

For an assignment in class in response to Level 5 Leadership and in preparation for President Roth's visit to class, students had to write about how they would improve Wesleyan and how they would measure their success if they were president of Wesleyan. Most of the students submitted criticisms of the school or what they would keep in order to continue to develop the success at Wesleyan.

A few of the common themes were:

• improving the CRC
• more athletic funding 
• expanding the number of admitted students
• better housing
• lay off of the fraternities
• more practical classes (business)
• but many others argued that: 
• the liberal arts education should be kept
• that financial aid should continue to be at the level it is at
• and to not change the social climate at Wesleyan

Senior classmate and football teammate Adam Schwartz offered a different angle. He claimed that the president's sole job is similar to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company:

FIND WAYS TO RAISE MONEY

Here's what Adam said:

Collegiate universities are some of the strangest business in the world today. When looking at them, one thinks of them just as any other school. They should be trying to enrich and teach students about endless amounts of subjects for their betterment and advancement after school. However, when looking at it as a president of a university, I believe it is more important to look the dynamic as more of a business. As a president of a school, especially one that is private like Wesleyan, one must never forget that this school is selling something to students who they consider to be a consumer. As a president your job is to make sure the school runs as efficiently as possible under your leadership so that you can attract new consumers or students to invest in the school and it’s future. 

Following this type of idea that a school is simply a business turning people out, hoping they get donations and such for them after they graduate and hopefully have success, I believe the only way to truly make your school great would be to have a terrific endowment and to have a terrific U.S News and World Report ranking. When looking at it, you realize as a president this is what you need to attract future customers. It means that you have done a great job, so people who went there are investing in the future because they keep giving back. They realize that the school is running very well and that it needs money to operate. An endowment size has to certainly be on the mind of a president. If not then he has no money or opportunity to plan for the future. He is stuck thinking about the present but with no road that ends. Money is crucial to being a good president.

The other thing is the rankings. When encompassing the rankings, as a president you realize that it has everything you want to attract new customers or investors. The rankings are an accumulation of all the bright spots that a school has to offer. It takes into account the professors that teach at the school, the buildings and equipment offered, graduation rate, acceptance rate, prestige all wrapped up in a number that is easy to read and digest if you are a new student looking at the school. It is a symbol of how good the school is, and as president you need to look at the whole picture and not micromanage everything. It could be argued that graduation rate is the best indicator of a good president or perhaps students who go to graduate school, but once those students leave, the university still needs money to operate and that comes from new students coming to the school to learn, so hopefully they can give back after their time there. 

As a president it is also interesting to note what type of university you are. Wes is a liberal arts school that attracts liberal arts students, so there is no need to add finance or specific classes like that. We don’t have our own graduate degrees outside of masters so it isn’t important to offer classes like that. It is better to offer classes that we feel we can get the best teachers for. If you look at big schools like a UF (Univ. of Florida) or a Texas, they offer classes so that kids there can go to the graduate schools they have. It is a one-way bridge of keeping your customers at your institution, which is something that does not apply to Wesleyan.

As president you need to keep your customers happy the best and think outside the box. Athletes are a minority, however they keep investors coming in and keep spirits on campus high, so I would invest more into an athletic program to get investors and alumni to come back and be excited for the school. I would equally put just as much money into the film program at Wesleyan school because that is also another big draw for the school. The social aspect of the school shouldn’t concern me as long as student safety isn’t involved. That is something that would be to much micromanaging and as president I have to worry about the bigger picture, which is investors. You need them so that you can accept good smart students who will do well but possibly can’t afford the tuition of the school. Without the money from the endowment it would be impossible to admit half the students we do, which make Wesleyan the school that it is. It isn’t necessarily a type of student or a specific one, but a generalization for those who you believe offer the best chance for success in the future that as president you want to admit to your school. Overall as president just like anything you need to be concerned with the money and where it comes from. That is your number one job, because that is what keeps the school going and everything else should be secondary and delegated to others who you trust.

Great work Adam!