Lawyer Provosts Increasingly Appointed as Campus Presidents

By Patricia E. Salkin, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of the Graduate and Professional Divisions, Touro University

A little studied trend revealed in a new book, shows the exponential increase in the number of lawyers being appointed as college and university presidents.  Serving as a provost is often a pathway to the presidency for those interested, yet the data shows that most lawyer presidents did not previously serve as provosts or chief academic officers.  Although there is little published research about the backgrounds of provosts, it is fair to state that the typical provost does not possess a JD degree.  A 2010 Study of Chief Academic Officers of Independent Colleges and Universities published by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) indicated that among provosts (of chief academic officers) at four-year colleges and universities, at least 90% indicated that they held a terminal degree.  The study reported that 86% of chief academic officers at independent institutions had earned a PhD and 10% had earned an EdD. Of the remaining 4%, the survey reported the provosts possessed theology degrees, JDs (less than 1%) and MDs.

Through an examination of the backgrounds of lawyer presidents in May it Please the Campus: Lawyers Leading Higher Education (Touro University Press 2022), data about how many of these individuals had previously served as [law] professors, [law] deans, and provosts is discussed.    Data collected for the 2017 American College President Study published by the American Council on Education (ACE) revealed that of the number of lawyer presidents in for the 2017 survey year, roughly 28% had previously served as a chief academic officer or provost/dean/other senior executive in academic affairs.  This percentage is lower than what was reported in the 2002 survey which showed 34% had had previous chief academic officer or provost/dean/other academic affairs experience.  

The new study shares that from the 1940s to present, of the provosts with JDs, 51 of them have been appointed to 68 presidencies.  The 1940s and 1950s saw the appointment of just 1 lawyer provost to the campus C-Suite – Albert C. Jacobs.  Jacobs was first appointed as Chancellor at the University of Colorado (Denver) in 1949 where he stayed until 1953 when he was appointed as president of Trinity College. Two more lawyer provosts were appointed as presidents in the 1960s – Kingman Brewster at Yale in 1963 and Edward H. Levi at the University of Chicago in 1968.

Two more were appointed in the 1970s and then the number started to climb with 5 in the 1980s, 9 in the 1990s, 12 in the 2000s and 28 in the 2010s.  So far, only two years in to the 2020s, with 8 appointments of lawyer provosts to the presidency, by extrapolation we might expect the number to hit 40 by the end of the decade.

A list of all known provosts with an earned JD who were appointed as a campus president (and/or interim president), along with the name of the school and term of office are listed below. [Note: Chancellors are treated as presidents for purposes of this research and are included on the list as well]

NAME

JOB_ROLE

SCHOOL

TERM_OF_OFFICE

Arthur, Virginia

President

Metropolitan State University (MN)

2016-Present

Bollinger, Lee 

President

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (MI)

1996-2002

Bollinger, Lee 

President

Columbia University (NY)

2002-2023

Brewster, Jr Kingman

President

Yale University (CT)

1963-1977

Brown, Barry

Interim President

Suffolk University (MA)

2010-2012

Brown, Barry

President

Mount Ida College (MA)

2012-2018

Burcham, David

Interim President

Loyola Marymount University (CA)

2010-2010

Burcham, David

President

Loyola Marymount University (CA)

2010-2015

Casper, Gerhard

President

Stanford University (CA)

1992-2000

Cohen, David

President

Five Towns College (NY)

2016-Present

Collins, Jennifer M.

President

Rhodes College (TN)

2022-Present

D' Emilio, Deaane Horner

President

Gwynedd Mercy University (PA)

2017-Present

Ehrlich, Thomas

President

Indiana University (IN)

1987-1994

Eisgruber, Christopher

President

Princeton University (NJ)

2013-Present

Emery, Alfred C.

President

University of Utah (UT)

1971-1973

Gabel, Joan T.A.

President

University of Minnesota (MN)

2019-Present

Garrett, Elizabeth

President

Cornell University (NY)

2015-2016

Greiner, William R.

President

University of Buffalo (NY)

1991-2004

Hall, David

President

University Virgin Islands (VI)

2009-Present

Hillman, Elizabeth

President

Mills College (CA)

2016-Present

Jackson, Thomas H.

President

University of Rochester (NY)

1994-2005

Jacobs, Albert C.

Chancellor

University of Denver (CO)

1949-1953

Jacobs, Albert C.

President

Trinity College (CT)

1953-1968

Jones, Jr., Glendell

President

Henderson State University (AR)

2012-2019

Levi, Edward H.

President

University of Chicago (IL)

1968-1975

Levit, Janet

Interim President

University of Tulsa (OK)

2020-2021

Loh, Wallace

President

University of Maryland, College Park (MD)

2010-2020

Looney, Susan

President

Reading Area Community College (PA)

2018-Present

Magill, Elizabeth

President

University of Pennsylvania (PA)

2022-Present

McConnell, Joyce

President

Colorado State (CO)

2019-2022

McDonald, Clay

President

Logan University (MO)

2013-Present

McDonald, J. Clay

President

Logan University (MO)

2003-Present

Mearns, Geoffrey S.

President

Northern Kentucky University (KY)

2012-2017

Mearns, Geoffrey S.

President

Ball State University (IN)

2017-Present

Mengler, Thomas

President

St. Mary’s University (TX) (TX)

2012-Present

Morehead, Jere W.

President

University of Georgia (GA)

2013-Present

Nordenberg, Mark

Interim Chancellor

University of Pittsburgh (PA)

1995-1995

Nordenberg, Mark

Chancellor

University of Pittsburgh (PA)

1996-2014

O'Neil, Robert Marchant

President

University of Wisconsin (WI)

1980-1985

O'Neil, Robert Marchant

President

University of Virginia (VA)

1985-1990

Perrin, Larry Timothy

President

Lubbock Christian University (TX)

2012-Present

Posner, Susan

President

Hofstra University (NY)

2021-Present

Pritchett, Wendell

Interim President

University of Pennsylvania (PA)

2022-2022

Rallo, Joseph

President

Angelo State University (TX)

2007-2015

Reisberg, Darren

President

Hartwick College (NY)

2022-Present

Ryan, Barry

President

Agrosy University, Southern CA campuses (CA)

2007-2009

Ryan, Barry

President and CEO

West Coast University (CA)

2009-2014

Ryan, Barry

Chancellor

Agrosy University (CA)

2014-2015

Ryan, Barry

President and CEO

United States University (CA)

2015-2016

Ryan, Barry

President

Sofia University (CA)

2018-2020

Snyder, Barbara

President

Case Western Reserve (OH)

2007-Present

Sovern, Michael

President

Columbia University (NY)

1980-1993

Spectar, Jem

President

University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown (PA)

2007-Present

Stanley, Deborah F.

Interim President

SUNY Oswego (NY)

1995-1997

Stanley, Deborah F.

President

SUNY Oswego (NY)

1997-2021

Stanley, Deborah F.

Interim Chancellor

SUNY System(NY)

2021-Present

Stargardter, Steven

President

John F. Kennedy University (CA)

2004-Present

Stevens, Robert

President

Haverford College (PA)

1978-1987

Stevens, Robert

Chancellor

University of California (Santa Cruz) (CA)

1987-1991

Sullivan,  Thomas, E.

President

University of Vermont (VT)

2012-Present

Sulmasy, Glenn M.

President

Nichols College (MA)

2021-Present

Thierstein, Joel

Interim President

Mount St. Joseph University (OH)

2014-2014

Thierstein, Joel

President

West Virginia Wesleyan College (WV)

2017-Present

Wiserman, Christine

President

Saint Xavier University (IL)

2010-2016

Yudof, Mark

President

University of Minnesota (MN)

1997-2002

Yudof, Mark

Chancellor

University of Texas System (TX)

2002-2008

Yudof, Mark

President

University of California (CA)

2008-2013

Zeppos, Nicholas

President

Vanderbilt University (TN)

2008-2019

 

For more information about lawyer presidents please visit: https://lawyersleadinghighered.com   

If you are aware of a lawyer president with prior provost experience who is not on this list, please share that information with the author at [email protected] .

 

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