Throughout the college season, university administrations have come under public scrutiny like never before: violent protests on college campuses, police arrests, hostile accusations, accusations of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, disruptions to free speech and hate speech, angry congressional hearings, leadership changes, and declining public trust. Once a coveted position, The Chronicle of Higher Education recently asked in a featured article, “Who wants to be a college president?”
But rather than disband under intense scrutiny, Yale took timely action. Yale’s succession process for its next president, culminating in the remarkable selection of Maury McInnis, offers a model for universities across the nation on how to navigate leadership transitions in times of unprecedented crisis.
I have 45 years of expertise and research experience on leadership succession and academic governance, including serving on the National Commission on University Governance Reform for the Association of Boards of University and College Governments and chairing the Blue Ribbon Commission on CEO Succession for the National Association of Corporate Directors. My first book, The Hero’s Farewell, examined a leadership succession model that, 40 years after publication, continues to receive regular new coverage in outlets such as The New York Times. I believe Yale’s succession will be used as a best practices case study for years to come.
In stark contrast to other universities’ succession selection processes that have been hasty, careless, and plagued by nepotism (no need to blame Harvard), there was no such drama at Yale. Yale’s beloved President Peter Salovey announced his retirement nine months ago, providing ample notice. From there, the Yale Board of Trustees, led by a special succession search committee chaired by Bain co-founder Josh Bekenstein and Vassar College vice president and former president Cappy Bond Hill, conducted a comprehensive and wide-ranging search process that reflected commendable diligence and deliberation.
The search committee listened to input from all stakeholders, from one-on-one interviews with faculty, to consultations with student advisory committees, to small campus-wide feedback sessions. The committee listened, but did not gossip. From start to finish, they ensured that there were no leaks, that the selection of a successor did not degenerate into a front-page popularity contest, and that a truly planned and careful search took place in which the professional privacy of all top candidates was carefully protected.
“The fact that the Yale University Board of Trustees selected Maury McInnis to be the university’s 24th president is a testament not only to their admirable process, but also to their strong judgment. I have known Maury McInnis well for several years; she has not only participated in several Yale Higher Education Summits, but has also been a highly sought-after guest speaker in my Strategic Leadership course at the Yale School of Management. Her background, experience, and personality make her a perfect fit for this moment.”
Her academic credentials as a distinguished and groundbreaking scholar of race, slavery, and power in the 19th-century American South are beyond question, and her bona fide academic credentials were scrutinized by the selection committee. As a cultural historian with over six published books and dozens of widely cited articles, McInnis seamlessly bridges a range of academic disciplines, from art to history to the humanities, with her groundbreaking research illustrating the slave trade from Richmond to New Orleans through artistic expression.
While some may question the Yale Board of Trustees’ choice of one of its own to be its next president, her roots in the Yale community reflect a lifetime of commitment to the institution. McInnis, who holds multiple degrees from Yale and is a repeated alumna, was never a passive, bystander member of the Board of Trustees and spearheaded several major campus initiatives during her tenure, including the Yale Slavery Project, led by renowned Civil War historian David Bright. The Yale Slavery Project ultimately led to the publication of a book examining Yale’s difficult history around slavery, focusing on slaves and free blacks who have been part of Yale’s history since its inception but too often ignored in official narratives, addressing the legacy and memory of this complex story and examining slavery in the formation of Yale University.
At a Yale Higher Education Summit I recently convened (sponsored in part by the Chronicle of Higher Education), a gathering of a generation of university presidents, McInnis told attendees about her formative experiences as a scholar researching the University of Virginia’s difficult history of slavery and how the obstacles she encountered helped shape her approach: “Our group researching the history of slavery at the University of Virginia had to work on the project stealthily at first. We had to move the university archives online under the umbrella of the University of Virginia’s Early History Digital History Project before we could really make the most of the university’s records on slavery.”
McInnis’ diverse intellectual background, combined with her track record as a practical problem solver, has allowed her to build bridges with all constituencies, on and off campus, without ever retreating into an ivory tower or closing herself off to different perspectives. As president of Stony Brook University, one of the nation’s largest research universities, McInnis developed deep personal relationships with alumni such as Jim Simmons, whose $500 million gift for transformation is the largest unrestricted gift ever made to an institution of higher education in the United States. Her involvement in community activism extends far beyond the gates of Stony Brook University. McInnis was the founding president of the New York Climate Exchange, which brings together universities, researchers, nonprofits, community leaders, entrepreneurs, and businesses to develop equitable climate solutions for New York City.
McInnis’ track record of tackling highly politically sensitive and emotive issues with exceptional intellectual insight, a foundation in historical fact, and personal integrity, while also pragmatically considering the implications for how we live and learn together today, makes him a uniquely attractive choice to serve as Yale University’s 24th president.
Despite the turmoil on campus, the selection of Maury McInnis as Yale’s next president offers an encouraging blueprint for how university governance can move forward while reflecting lessons learned from past challenges.
In short, the Yale succession case study has shown how a board can solicit input from a wide range of members, select on the basis of demonstrated ability, vet character thoroughly, and be trusted to keep secrets. Perhaps this 323-year-old institution can share something with other universities that reverses H.L. Henken’s warning that older universities teach living languages ​​as if they were dead and dead languages ​​as if they were living.
Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld is Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies and the Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice at the Yale School of Management.
