Lessons Learned: Reflections of a University President by William G. Bowen is a new book that may represent, at this point in time, reflections on a career in that role longer than nearly all future university presidents will have. Consider the words below, conveying the importance and value of a long presidential tenure.

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You can learn more about Bowen and the new book from this Inside Higher Ed interview:

Q: Toward the end of the book, you suggest that 8-10 years would be "a good target" for a president to accomplish an agenda. You served 16 years at Princeton, but these days, five- and six-year presidencies are increasingly the norm. Why do you suggest a bit longer as a target goal? Do you think something is lost when presidencies are shorter?

A: My experience is that more than five or six years is often needed to achieve important objectives. As I explain in Lessons Learned, building strength in the life sciences at Princeton was a major strategic objective, and it took us a decade or more to do what needed to be done: achieve clarity on the precise goals, recruit essential faculty leadership, plan for the construction of laboratory space, raise the large amounts of money required, and recruit additional faculty. We made several false starts (from which we learned important lessons), and it then took time to accumulate the necessary resources and recruit strong faculty leadership. Shorter-term presidencies also mean that searches are more frequent and that too much time is spent on transitions. But of course much depends on the age of a president (I was 38 when I became president of Princeton), on health, and a number of other factors that can be specific to the institution or the individual.