When one thinks of "headhunters" one usually thinks of lawyers, software engineers, and others who work in or with business very closely. When one thinks of the academic world, it is often as a world apart, an oasis from the world of commerce. Neither of these is really the case, and in many cases the best move for an institution is to use the services of higher education executive search firms.
The rhetoric of liberal arts has the largest role in our often unrealistic thinking about academe. This rhetoric, which one still hears so often in freshman orientation speeches, gives one the impression of a world apart. Young people learn the liberal arts in a disinterested way, free from any merely commercial concern, as if everyone there was a budding Romantic poet.
In reality, higher academia is a very big industry, whose endowments can reach as large as a billion dollars. Public universities represent a very noticeable slice of every state budget. For the students, interest in getting their degrees is inevitably about their career. This is the case even for those in the arts, which is why the Master of Fine Arts is so important to them.
Student costs are so high that they must be understood as customers even if saying so openly would be too shockingly contradictory to the old sense of purity. That image of purity should best be understood as advertising. Young people know all too well that they are incurring years, even decades, of debt, and it is the rare student who can afford that burden only to gain a subtler appreciation for Renaissance sculpture.
Students aren't the only customers who need to be stroked and cultivated. Schools must try to win grants and contracts from government and industry, and certainly from the military, which requires the brainpower that resides in their science and engineering oriented departments. They also need to compete for rich benefactors, and for the foundations they manage, especially in the arts and humanities. There is no better way to compete for this funding than by bringing aboard academe's top performing stars, those whose reputations open donors' checkbooks.
It's easy to forget that college also means collegiate sports, which often becomes all important to the school's self-image. Top coaches in top sports, with the most cutting-edge facilities, are understandably expensive. The payoff is branding that inspires students not simply during their college years but after they graduate, when they can approached for donations to their beloved alma mater.
There are two kinds of search firms, contingency and retainer firms. Contingency firms fill one search at a time on an ad hoc basis, often trying to "sell" a potential scholar or administrator to the school on the slightest clue that a need might be present. These might be best for small colleges who expect to do rather infrequent high end hiring.
Retainer firms are usually best for large universities which expect to do a lot of hiring, or for elite smaller colleges for whom all hiring must be top-notch. These firms build a long range client relationship with the institution, becoming sensitive to its particular needs, and make life a lot easier for the school's overworked human resources department.
The rhetoric of liberal arts has the largest role in our often unrealistic thinking about academe. This rhetoric, which one still hears so often in freshman orientation speeches, gives one the impression of a world apart. Young people learn the liberal arts in a disinterested way, free from any merely commercial concern, as if everyone there was a budding Romantic poet.
In reality, higher academia is a very big industry, whose endowments can reach as large as a billion dollars. Public universities represent a very noticeable slice of every state budget. For the students, interest in getting their degrees is inevitably about their career. This is the case even for those in the arts, which is why the Master of Fine Arts is so important to them.
Student costs are so high that they must be understood as customers even if saying so openly would be too shockingly contradictory to the old sense of purity. That image of purity should best be understood as advertising. Young people know all too well that they are incurring years, even decades, of debt, and it is the rare student who can afford that burden only to gain a subtler appreciation for Renaissance sculpture.
Students aren't the only customers who need to be stroked and cultivated. Schools must try to win grants and contracts from government and industry, and certainly from the military, which requires the brainpower that resides in their science and engineering oriented departments. They also need to compete for rich benefactors, and for the foundations they manage, especially in the arts and humanities. There is no better way to compete for this funding than by bringing aboard academe's top performing stars, those whose reputations open donors' checkbooks.
It's easy to forget that college also means collegiate sports, which often becomes all important to the school's self-image. Top coaches in top sports, with the most cutting-edge facilities, are understandably expensive. The payoff is branding that inspires students not simply during their college years but after they graduate, when they can approached for donations to their beloved alma mater.
There are two kinds of search firms, contingency and retainer firms. Contingency firms fill one search at a time on an ad hoc basis, often trying to "sell" a potential scholar or administrator to the school on the slightest clue that a need might be present. These might be best for small colleges who expect to do rather infrequent high end hiring.
Retainer firms are usually best for large universities which expect to do a lot of hiring, or for elite smaller colleges for whom all hiring must be top-notch. These firms build a long range client relationship with the institution, becoming sensitive to its particular needs, and make life a lot easier for the school's overworked human resources department.
