President's Perspective: Turning Heads
CURRENTS Article A turnover in leadership can disrupt an institution's advancement efforts. CASE President John Lippincott offers advice, based on a discussion with CASE volunteers, on what advancement leaders can do to ensure a smooth transition.

Hail to the Tweeps
CURRENTS Article This article looks at how college and university presidents and chancellors are using social media channels, particularly Twitter, to communicate and engage with students, faculty, staff, parents, and the campus community.

Odds and Ends: Weird Is Where It’s At
CURRENTS Article In this Q-and-A format interview, Seth Godin jumps into the debate on the value of higher education, talks about his tribes and what makes him "weird," and offers college and university presidents some advice on how they could change the education landscape.

Odds and Ends: Pondering Presidents
CURRENTS Article In this interview, presidential historian Robert Dallek talks to CURRENTS about the skills that are essential to presidential leadership, his latest book, and presidents both past and present.

Stepping Up
CURRENTS Article As higher education presidents are required to be yet more invovled in fundraising, advancement leaders have a better pitch than ever for why they might be the best candidate for an institutional leadership opening.

Outlook: Where Leadership Meets Fundraising
CURRENTS Article Strong presidents who are also successful fundraisers tend to have the following five qualities: vision, the ability to use their own story in relation to the school, listening skills, institutional ego, and a propensity to take risks.

Outlook: Putting the PR in PResident
CURRENTS Article The president of the University of Georgia makes the case for being the external relations officer in chief. He also enumerates some of the trends on the horizon for education.

Advance Work: It's Good to Be the King
CURRENTS Article One lucky student at Widener University gets to be the president for a day, while the president takes a walk in the student's shoes.

Closing Remarks: I'm Glad You Asked
CURRENTS Article The president of San Diego State University shares what he has learned about fundraising.

Advance Work: Student Inauguration
CURRENTS Article What better way to tell incoming students and their parents that an institution has hands-on leadership than to have the president help move students into their dorms? The president of George Mason University has been doing this for his tenure.

Closing Remarks: The On-Campus President
CURRENTS Article Bard President Leon Botstein provides some historical background on why many college and university presidents became more cautious and isolated from their students. Botstein, who lives prominently on the Bard campus, then makes the case for breaking down barriers to close interactions with students. After all, that's part of the fun of being a college president.

Closing Remarks: Changing of the Guard
CURRENTS Article Retiring university and college presidents open the door for a new kind of leader

The Same but Bigger
CURRENTS Article This article examines the changing nature of the campus presidency. It has become increasingly complex and the model of academics working their way through the ranks to become president doesn’t always seem to work anymore. This article explores the premise of the academic president vs. advancement president and suggests that the work of presidents has become more advancement-like in nature. The article looks at presidents’ external relations roles, including fundraising and community relations, and internal relations roles. It also examines whether presidents today are (can? should be?) considered public intellectuals. A related sidebar, "Listening In," is an excerpt from the Summit 06 panel session, “Leadership Challenges in Higher Education,” and features a discussion about the role of the campus president.

Brain Matters
CURRENTS Article Campus presidents spend much of their time trying to juggle competing demands, but they aren’t often asked to reflect on those pressures. Marnie Spears, a Toronto-based fund-raising consultant, interviewed the presidents of 12 public universities in Canada to identify the key issues they face as fund raisers, the surprises they have encountered in their role as president, and the tasks they consider the most valuable use of their time. This article outlines the six lessons Spears learned from these discussions. It also gives development officers some insight into what their own presidents might be thinking.

Career Path: Make Way for PAs
CURRENTS Article Presidential assistants are just as involved in advancement as their colleagues in alumni relations, communications and marketing, and development, says Widener University PA Marcus Lingenfelter. The scope of the PA's role on campus depends on four factors: the needs of the chief executive, the institution's scope and mission, the individual's education and experience, and the institution's needs.

Overarching Concerns
CURRENTS Article Just as the nature of higher education is changing, so too is the campus presidency. As advancement officers increasingly work closely with campus CEOs, they should be well informed about the demands and new challenges they face.

Closing Remarks: Program Pilot
CURRENTS Article The vice-chancellor of the UK’s Queen’s University Belfast says the vice-chancellor's job is to set stretch targets that drive a campus forward by deliberately creating a gap between its ambitions and its current resources. In doing so, he or she must then obtain adequate resources to fund those ambitions, lead campus development activities, and be an active fund raiser.

Closing Remarks: Lead Story
CURRENTS Article Campus leaders are the chief storytellers of their institutions. Telling stories—communicating core messages—helps them build trust, maintain integrity, model productive behavior, and set a tone for their campuses. To do so, they must ensure they’re heard amid the din of other communications, practice self-disclosure so others will be open with them, and maintain balance in their roles so their stories and messages convey a broad range of perspectives.

Connecting with the CEO
CURRENTS Article Alumni executives can energize their partnerships with their chief campus administrator by recognizing the CEO’s role in alumni relations, respecting the CEO’s time and position, and understanding their responsibilities to enhance the CEO’s effectiveness.

Do You Take This Campus...
CURRENTS Article When the spouse of a campus CEO participates in advancement, he or she can extend the CEO's reach and effectiveness. Such participation can no longer be taken for granted, however, because some CEO spouses have their own careers. The article recommends clarifying the spouse's role during the CEO hiring process, finding projects in areas of the spouse's interest, providing administrative support and adequate recognition for the spouse's work, and considering whether to provide compensation.

In Advance: The Public Perspective
CURRENTS Article James Erickson interviewed chief executive officers of 37 public institutions that had been successful in their fund-raising efforts in 1995-1996 as noted by the Council for Aid to Education. Erickson, vice chancellor for university advancement at the University of California at Riverside, found that involvement of the CEO played a key role in the success of theses campaigns. His findings show that: 1) these CEOs devote significant time to fund raising; 2) they are involved in solicitation; 3) they keep their board of trustees informed and seek their support and advice; 4) chief development staff report directly to their CEOs; 5) these institutions seek support from a variety of sources; and 6) support for scholarships and fellowships is a top priority.

In Advance: Hail to the Chief
CURRENTS Article The book, "The Advancement President and the Academy" by Mary Kay Murphy is reviewed.