(Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series looking at what campus leaders want in Eastern’s next president. The third installment will run Dec. 3.)

Superman may not have a doctorate, which is preferred, but he does has the vice president for business affairs’ vote in the search for Eastern’s next president.

“I joke when I tell people that the next president just needs to have a set of blue tights and a red cape,” Jeff Cooley said. “So we’re looking for some super-being.”

Cooley’s comments illustrate the varied and difficult tasks that the university’s ninth president will face. All three of Eastern’s permanent vice presidents agree that it will be important to capitalize on the next president’s strengths because it will be almost impossible to find a candidate that can excel in every aspect of the position.

However, the vice presidents assert that Eastern’s next president must be a strong leader with the ability to connect with a number of different constituencies both within and outside the university, and he or she will also need the skills to attract contributions and increase the university’s funding base.

Lou Hencken, vice president for student affairs since 1992, has assumed the role of president in the interim, replacing Carol Surles, who resigned in July to seek treatment for breast cancer. Surles was preceded by David Jorns, who took the reigns from Stan Reeves.

Cooley said each of the four have brought different abilities to the position.

“I think each of the presidents that I worked with, each had unique individual strengths, those aspects that they brought to the job that made them work,” Cooley said. “For example, Stan Reeves was very detailed-oriented.”

Cooley credits Jorns for bringing a great deal of institutional planning to Eastern and decentralizing the budget. He said Surles used her ability to work with others to raise the university’s funding and donations and Hencken’s interpersonal skills and knowledge of the university have been invaluable in the interim.

Each president has had their own strengths and so will the next president, but the university’s vice presidents know they cannot expect Eastern’s next leader to excel in every area, thus Cooley’s Superman reference.

“The qualities of leadership are often fairly idiosyncratic to the campus and the campus at that moment,” said Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs. “No president is going to be equally good at all of the possible things that we can ask a president to do.”

Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations, said she has worked closely with Hencken, Surles and Jorns and that experience has helped her appreciate the important and difficult role of university president, which she admits is “a 24-seven job.”

Given the rigors of being president, Nilsen said it is the vice presidents’ job to provide assistance. Cooley said he feels the same way. As the university’s chief financial officer, it will be his duty to adapt his style to the needs of the next president as far as providing support and in some cases more detailed budgetary information.

“My job would be to, if we bring someone from outside, specifically outside the state, would be to let them know the inner-workings of how it works in Illinois,” he said. “I would look for someone though that does have the budgetary overview of the institution to understand the inner-workings and how the funding works. I’m not talking specifically to Illinois. I think anyone who’s been in this position or who would apply for this already has that overview. They understand how the funding mechanisms work.”

A steady hand

Lord said he would like the next president to bring stability to Eastern, a quality that has not always been apparent during the past few years with the amount of administrative change the university has undergone, including at the presidential level.

While the vice presidents seek stability they don’t expect the next president to sign a lifetime contract.

“I would love to see a three-to-five-year commitment from someone who would come in because it is kind of disruptive as you go through,” Cooley said. “But to say that we’re going to look for someone that’s going to give us that committment – I don’t know that that’s the right way to look at this.

“I think we need to look at the best person for the job and convince them that this is the place that they want to stay.”

Opening up the lines

While the president is here, whether it is for three or 30 years, he or she will have to be able to relate to a variety of people.

“Communication generally is very, very important skill for any president,” Lord said, noting that the ability to articulate well and explain things is even more important in the case of a public university, where a president must relate with several constituencies, both on and off campus.

Nilsen agrees that communication is vital, as the president must be able to interact with various groups both on and off campus.

“The person who’s in that role of president has to impart to these many and varied audiences a passion for the university and has to be able to convey the story of the university to all those different constituencies,” she said. “And so, you have to have good people skills and you have to have good communication skills. You have to be able to relate to such a wider variety of individuals.”

One of the groups the president must be able to relate to is the city of Charleston.

“We are just joined at the hip with the city and they with us. What does affect the university affects the city. What affects the city affects the university,” Cooley said, explaining that businesses have been closing in Charleston, which is not beneficial to the city or Eastern. “So I see that the president, the city administrators, the mayor must work very closely together to address a lot of these issues.”

Charleston isn’t the only city of importance for Eastern. The next president must also be able to navigate the state capitol, Springfield, to lobby for funding. However, evidence suggests that the university’s next president may need to be more concerned with soliciting private donations.

“I think you find historically, as you look across presidencies around the country that there is increasing emphasis on presidents and fund-raisers because of decreasing public support for institutions,” Nilsen said. “Typically in higher ed the president’s role in fund-raising is to work with those individuals who are our major donors to the institution.”

Cooley said current economic forecasts might place additional emphasis on the president’s fund-raising capacity.

“Again, as you look at the economy, where we are right now, we’re looking at that economic downturn. So external funding sources are very important if we’re to reduce our reliance on state support we receive,” Cooley said. “So it’s very critical that the president have the capability to go out and meet with the donors and present that positive image for the university and to encourage their contributions.”

Leading the team

All three vice presidents said that above all, the president must have strong leadership skills.

“Leadership by far is, I think, the key element for me. I’d like to see someone who has that ability to lead, to form a consensus opinion on decisions, and also has a vision,” Cooley said.

While the president is the leader, he or she is only one member of a team and in the end the university’s success may rest on the support that the president receives.

“As we look at our president we have to really capitalize on the strengths that they can bring to the position and then provide additional support for areas that may not be as strong,” Nilsen said. “In that regard, if we work as a team – if there’s a whole university working as a team – we can move forward and continue to grow and excel as an institution of higher education.”