This is a descriptive study of factors that influenced search committees to recommend a candidate as president of a higher education institution. Chairpersons were asked, by means of a written survey, to indicate why their committee selected the individual to nominate as president as opposed to other finalists. Each chairperson classified one's response as being in one of the following categories: personal, performance, participation, or friendship.

The purpose of this study was to learn how men and women who do not have an initial career goal of becoming a college or university president end up in such a position.The study was to gather information on the internal and external influences on that career path, and how each participant fits within presidential career patterns presented by Wessel (1991).A qualitative case study method was used for this study. The participants were chosen based on their institutions' membership in the Virginia Foundation forIndependent Colleges (VFIC), thus all participants were from private institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Twelve of the 15 VFIC presidents were interviewed; two declined participation; and one institution had an interim president at the time of the study.Each president submitted a copy of his/her curriculum vitae for review and analysis, and each president was then placed into one of the variations of the Academic or the Administrative Career Patterns presented by Wessel (1991). Additional data was collected through personal in-depth interviews with each participant, and an interview guide approach was used in each of the interviews.The results indicate that there is no single career path that leads to a presidency.Presidents experienced both external and internal influences on their career paths and these varied in strength of influence based on the individual. Several other factors were also explored including: role of the family, preparations for a presidency and institutional search process.There are several implications for future research based on the findings of this study. The first of these is continued research into the debate of preparation either through the academic model or the administrative model. The second need for expanded research is the role of the family in the career path of college and university presidents. Finally the issue of the need for a Ph.D. is a point for further investigation.

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A common method for colleges and universities experiencing a transition between permanent presidents is to employ an interim president. A dominant perspective in related literature discussing the role, organizational value, and practices regarding the employment of an interim president has been based upon specific experiences of an institution or individual who had endured or fulfilled an interim presidency; absent, have been the insights of experienced interim presidents-individuals who have been a permanent president at least once and interim president multiple times at different institutions. Therefore, this research answers the following two questions: (a) what are the perspectives and insights of individuals who have been a permanent president at least once and interim president multiple times at different institutions pertaining to the role, organizational value, and practices regarding the employment of an interim university president, and (b) how do their perspectives and insights complement or differ from common beliefs and practices dominating related literature pertaining to the role, organizational value, and practices regarding the employment of an interim university president?