Written by Dr. Melik Peter Khoury
The reality for the future of institutional leadership in an age of scarcity
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” A. Einstein
The Great Pretense
For generations, higher education has been training its leaders to be curators of abundance. The job description was elegant in its simplicity: steward donor relationships, manage endowments, preserve institutional prestige, and keep the ancient machinery of teaching and research spinning smoothly. It was a world of caretaking, not risk-taking. A world where the primary skill was knowing how to say no gracefully to good ideas because resources, while ample, were not infinite.
That training served us well when the game had predictable rules. When demographics were favorable, when state support was reliable, when competition was regional, and when the value proposition of a degree was unquestioned. Leaders could succeed by being excellent managers of a proven model. They were trained to fly on autopilot during calm skies, monitoring familiar instruments and making minor course corrections.
But calm skies are a luxury we no longer possess.
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