Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

policy . Second, the strong faculty
required for the ideal institution
will not surrender its rights .
Negro administrators also are
accused of incompetence . Again,
the failing should not be identified
with a particular race . Incompetent
white men preside over colleges,
just as incompetent Negroes
do . Conversely, many Negroes administer
programs effectively, just
as white men do .
The fact that some presidents
have proved to be incompetent
merely emphasizes the need to select
a president carefully . Some
men cannot cope with the rapid
expansions of colleges today . For
example, an administrator who has
governed successfully as a fatherin-residence
for a family of five
hundred students and seventy
teachers may learn that his methods
fail when the population
doubles .
Traditionally, ministers and professors
have been selected as presidents
of Negro colleges . Ministers
are presumed competent to guide
the moral as well as the intellectual
development of students . It is further
assumed that brilliant professors
can reshape the curriculum
imaginatively and can stimulate
academic performance characteristic
of their own work .
The fact is, however, that the
complexity of college administration
today requires the talents of a
corporation executive rather than
those of a scholar or a spiritual
counselor . Higher education is big
bb
business . Some key administrator
on the campus must know how to
secure grants, how to organize staff,
how to handle personnel, how to
prepare and present budgets and
proposals : in short, someone must
know how to operate a big business
successfully . Ideally, therefore .
some top administrator-a vicepresident,
perhaps-should be experienced
in business management .
But how many Negroes have been
given the opportunity to exercise
their talents as executives in large
corporations? Whereas some white
colleges may complain that they
cannot find business executives
willing to accept lower salaries as
vice-presidents, Negro colleges
must complain of the scarcity of
Negroes with sufficient executive
experience to serve even as visiting
consultants .
An ideal institution needs a triumvirate
of key administratorsone
man, experienced in managing
a corporation, who manages the
operation ; a second man - an
imaginative scholar-who spearheads
the academic program ; a
third man, knowledgeable about
budgets, taxes, and law, who serves
as financial officer . Naturally, as a
scholar, I would name the academic
man to the post of president .
Each of the three, however, is essential
to a successful operation,
and each must find sufficient prestige
and satisfaction in his own position
that he will not seek to usurp
the responsibilities of the other
two .
March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST