Politicians increasingly taking the reins as college presidents in red states

Former elected officials are increasingly filling the role of college president, especially in red states where dissatisfaction with higher education is high.

While conservatives want to see these leaders shake up a system they see as biased against them, they also hope hiring a former senator or governor offers better connections with state legislators, potentially leading to more support for the school in question.

But concerns are growing over the controversies overtly political college heads can court — and over their general qualifications in the education sphere.

”I think the bigger issue is that the presidency has become a much more externally facing job, and boards are looking for, more broadly, for people who really know how to lead a complex organization and navigate an increasingly complicated public policy environment, and so that’s what I really think that is happening out there,” said Ross Mugler, president and CEO of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

“And government experience can be an asset, but political alignment should never be a job qualification,” Mugler added.

Florida is a stand-out case, with at least five GOP appointees currently at the helm of public colleges.

In Texas, the current interim president of Texas A&M is a GOP politician with over a decade of experience in the state legislature.

And Mitch Daniels, the current interim president of Purdue University, served as a Republican governor of Indiana after positions in both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.

The heads of colleges have always had a somewhat political job to do, but as universities increasingly find themselves caught in the crossfire of partisan fights, the positions have been dragged further and further into the public eye.

“It’s always been a hard job. I don’t want to discount the fact that it’s always been challenging, but I think there has been increased attention, particularly given some of the very high-profile congressional hearings with college presidents that we saw after October 7, where we saw a really sharp federal spotlight on presidents, and it was very clear that there were consequences of a federal spotlight,” said Katharine Meyer, a fellow at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

“Obviously, there are great rewards, but it’s a hard job, and I think there are a lot of people who would say no to that to that job who might have said yes to it or aspired toward it a couple of years ago in a very different, slightly less partisan political landscape,” Meyer added.

But just because the job is getting more political, doesn’t mean a politician will be a good fit.

Experts say politicians without much executive experience, such as lawmakers, may find the job more difficult than a governor would.

“What we have found is that those people who are just plain coming out of Congress … they don’t really have experience governing … they haven’t had to hire and fire people, they haven’t had to work within a budget, all the things that go into running a university is not what happens when you’re either a senator or a congressperson,” said Judith Wilde, a research professor at George Mason University and an expert on college presidential searches.

“The most successful ones have been governors or been an executive somewhere, so that they’ve really had the fuller picture of how to run something,” she added.

But for those who see American universities as in need of pro-conservative reform, right-wing bona fides could be a college president’s strongest asset.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) have been open in their goal to transform higher education, with both states working to exert more control over public colleges, ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and get rid of classes deemed too left-leaning.

Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, said the choice of a politician will always “irritate” at least half of the national population and a good segment within a state.

“Particularly when you’re talking about red states, that can also set up a clash with the internal politics of the university, but also the other entities that are involved, educationally. So, universities are pretty left-leaning, accreditors are left-leaning, and so when you come in and you bring in a former Republican politician to lead a university, a lot of creditors are going to start asking questions,” he added.

While there are examples of Democratic politicians leading colleges, such as Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor and Homeland Security secretary, who served as president of the University of California system for seven years, ideological change is not typically one of the motivations for their appointments.

And regardless of their party, former elected officials sometimes come with assumptions of political connections that don’t always pan out.

“They’ve seen them as people who can get them the money that the university needs and deserves to increase their standing. Actually, that hasn’t always been the case. In fact, in some instances, presidents with strong academic backgrounds have actually been more successful advocates for the state legislature than those who are former politicians,” said Judith Block McLaughlin, senior lecturer at Harvard who focuses on leadership and governance in higher education.