More than ever before, it’s becoming difficult to run a major university.

Because of diverse constituencies, tight budgets and a lack of funding from the state level, many colleges are experiencing a revolving-door policy for their presidents.

“A number of presidents get bogged down dealing with the budget crises. They don’t have time to look to the future and they become firemen trying to put out fires and can’t look beyond that,” said President John La Tourette.

“It becomes a burnout,” he said.

La Tourette compared the job of a college president to being the chief executive officer of a large corporation except the job has even more responsibility. Large and diverse groups of students make decisions affecting the whole university more difficult, he said.

NIU has four different groups—students, faculty, operating and professional staff whose competing interests constantly need to be balanced, he said.

Unlike other institutions, colleges make their decisions from the bottom up, with his approval making the last step, he said. Thus, because of the shared decision making, more considerations have to be dealt with, he said.

Other influences include legislatures, politicians and alumni, he said.

“You find a successful president is one who can balance competing interests and maximize support from the external world to the university,” he said.

To solve the problem, La Tourette said schools must put more emphasis on human resource development, and make the faculty and staff more effective in their duties.

La Tourette compared the problems colleges face today to those of the 1960s.

“There was rapid growth in the 1960s in higher education. There was more funding for schools and less pressure from state administrators (than today),” he said.

“It was kind of fun to be an administrator then,” he said.

While college presidents usually come from within the ranks of the school that doesn’t mean all administrators aspire to the top, he said.

Many say, “They’d be satisfied where they’re at, and don’t want to take on the difficult decisions that might come to a president’s desk,” he said.

Besides these concerns, La Tourette faces future problems like faculty retirement, maintenance cost, serving a diverse student population and keeping educational facilities up-to-date.