How to Run a University
Featuring an interview with President Emerita Diana Chapman Walsh
College for College Presidents
When you enroll at college, you choose a major. Typically, your major provides the necessary background knowledge and skills to pursue specific careers. Economics majors may become economists, but many venture into entrepreneurship, investment banking, or accounting. Studio art majors might become artists, creative directors, or graphic designers. Biology majors can explore careers in biological research, nursing, or anesthesiology. However, there are certain jobs without a clear, corresponding major, and one of those is university president.
College president is an unusual job. Most people who end up becoming college presidents didn’t fantasize about the role as children, but it’s a key position with immense responsibility. Being a college president is like being the mayor of a small (or, in some cases, large) town. The residents change every four years, and there’s constant pressure to improve facilities, expand resources, and grow opportunities.
When a college elects a new president, it’s typical for that person to go back to school, even for just one or two classes on how to be a university president. The most notable program is offered by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. For just under $10,000, prospective presidents can take the “Harvard Seminar for New Presidents.” They get to learn everything from navigating the land mines of social media to tips on improving fundraising initiatives. There’s truly a class for every profession, and college president is no exception.
Diana Chapman Walsh didn’t expect to spend 14 years of her professional life as president of Wellesley College. After years working and teaching as a scholar of public health, with a particular expertise on the study and treatment of alcoholism, Diana found herself in the running for Wellesley’s president in 1993. With great candor, Diana shares her journey to academic leadership and what she learned about how to run a university.
Stewarding a college requires diplomatic skills to strike a balance between protecting and upholding free speech and ensuring student and faculty safety. The role of a college president is not for the faint-hearted. Serious challenges crop up that even a well-rounded education can’t prepare one for. Diana’s memoir, The Claims of Life, offers a vivid account of her experiences and hard-won wisdom. Her thoughts and ideas have extreme relevance to today’s conflicts on college campuses.
Scholarly Sources
Diana Chapman Walsh is President Emerita of Wellesley College and an emerita member of the governing boards of MIT and Amherst College.
Q: Who should read The Claims of Life and why?
A: I’ve been hearing from many people (far more than I dared expect) who are finding it an enjoyable read, and, some say, an inspiring one. That response has been deeply moving to me, and I very much hope others who pick it up will have a similar experience.
Q: What are you reading right now?
A: I’ve just finished (and very much enjoyed) James by Percival Everett.
Q: What is your favorite book or essay to assign to give to people and why?
A: Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright. It’s a brilliant diplomat’s compelling personal account of the questions we must ask — and how we must live — if we are to defend our democracy against the forces of autocracy that are spreading around the world and, alarmingly, at home. Or, for those who would prefer a more concise take on the same challenge, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.
Q: Is there a book you read as a student that had a particularly profound impact on your trajectory as a scholar?
A: Two books: (1) T.S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950, and (2) Robert N. Bella, et al., Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
Q: Which deceased writer would you most like to meet and why?
A: Mary Ann Evans, who wrote as George Eliot, one of the great writers of the Victorian era; first I would reread her seven classic novels, which I’ve been wanting to do, especially her masterpiece, Middlemarch, which I haven’t re-read since college although I promised myself I would return to it later in life. It’s time!
Q: What's the best book you've read in the past year?
A: It may have been more than a year ago but has stayed with me. I loved The Overstory, Richard Powers’s sweeping novel.
Q: Have you seen any films, documentaries, or museum exhibitions that left an impression on you recently?
A: “An Archaeology of Silence,” Kehinde Wiley’s March 18-October 15, 2023 exhibition at the de Young Museum blew me away. I went 4 times.
I was captivated by a recent film, American Fiction, based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett (the author also of James, above).
Q: What do you plan on reading next?
A: Transitional Absurdity by Charles Johnston, who recently died. The subtitle, “A Reason for Hope/ a Reason to Fear—Looking Squarely at the Future in Confusing and Contradictory Times,” intrigues me. These are questions I’ve been trying to sort out. Maybe his big theory approach will be enlightening.