THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 18, 1995 TAG: 9509180039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
When he finished his presentation at an Old Dominion University meeting last week, the rector of the board, Arthur A. Diamonstein, turned to President James V. Koch.
``Mr. President,'' Diamonstein said by way of introduction. And then, in an aside to board members: ``It's the last time you'll hear from him for three or four months.''
It's not that the board is forcing Koch off-campus for the winter. The president wants to take an extended break, and he has the board's blessings.
On Wednesday, he will leave on full salary for Australia and Japan, where he will spend three months writing and lecturing.
Koch's idea is not unusual.
As the stress of being a college president intensifies, more are looking to sabbaticals - previously the pursuit of professors - to catch up on research, get back to teaching or simply unwind.
Over the summer, at least two other Virginia presidents took time off: Eugene P. Trani of Virginia Commonwealth University went to London for two months to finish a book on Woodrow Wilson's connection with the Russian Revolution. And John T. Casteen III of the University of Virginia spent 2 1/2 weeks in England, visiting churches and museums to inspect relics of the Anglo-Saxon period.
``The presidency is a high-stress job,'' said David Merkowitz, spokesman for the American Council on Education in Washington. ``Getting some distance from the job and a chance to reconnect with your discipline, or do something completely different, can be very renewing. If you really want to keep people in leadership positions like that, they've got to have a chance to renew themselves.''
Koch, 52, who has spent five years as president of ODU and the four previous years leading the University of Montana, said, ``In a job that is this consuming and demanding, after some point it's a good idea to stand apart for a while. I'm not ready to step down as president, so this seemed a good way station for me to get away and to act like a professor.''
The acting president through Christmas will be the No. 2 administrator at Old Dominion, Jo Ann Gora, the provost.
The demands squeezing college presidents drew attention last fall when the president of Harvard University succumbed to fatigue. One day, Neil Rudenstine overslept and missed a fund-raiser. For the next two months, he stayed home, in virtual seclusion, to recover from extreme exhaustion.
As president, Rudenstine had a reputation for involving himself in all facets of university life: He engaged janitors in conversation, he sat in on all tenure decisions, he religiously wrote notes of praise.
But even presidents who don't have that hands-on style are facing mounting pressures: managing budget cuts, increasing efficiency, raising big bucks, wooing politicians, along with all the social obligations.
When Koch announced his leave in August 1994, he told professors that ``life as a president is a rugged, all-consuming, draining experience when cutbacks are the constant order of the day.''
For Casteen, the major burden that left him feeling ``very tired'' in the spring was the romancing of donors as the university prepared to launch a $700 million campaign.
Between meetings and university events, Koch estimates he spends 70 to 80 hours a week on the job, including weekends. VCU's Trani said, ``I'm out five, six nights a week. My day starts before breakfast and goes to 8, 9 o'clock. Burnout would be relatively easy in these kinds of jobs.''
Faculty members sound sympathetic. ``What we want in someone in a very visible leadership position is that this individual continue to be very productive,'' said Janis V. Sanchez, associate professor of psychology. ``I think a sabbatical will allow him to shift gears and return with a great degree of enthusiasm.''
Donald H. Smith, an associate professor of sociology, agreed. ``He's going to feel better, he's going to be in a better mood, he's going to be a better president,'' Smith said.
But Smith said faculty members should get leaves just as easily. Some professors don't get approval, he said, and others who do are required to dramatically increase their course loads before they leave or when they return - or get a colleague to do the same while they're away.
When Koch was hired as president of ODU in 1990, his contract included a provision for a leave after five years. He will continue to get his salary, which will amount to roughly $35,000 during his time away.
Koch will spend most of his time at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - the ``MIT of Australia,'' Koch said - where he will begin a book on the ``university of the 21st century'' and deliver lectures on managerial economics.
He also will spend two weeks in Japan, offering lectures on such subjects as changes in American public education and technological advances in higher education.
Like his counterparts, Koch chose to go overseas to make sure the time will be a real leave. ``I wanted,'' he said, ``to be far enough away that I would not be easily reached.''
The research activities of the presidents, while seemingly removed from their day-to-day jobs, can help their universities, Casteen said. ``It is of value to ODU to have a president who is a serious scholar with an international reputation.''
Plus, Koch said he would benefit from more interaction with faculty: ``I'm going to be able to sit and have significant conversations with professors, much more so than I'm doing here. It's good for a president to understand what faculty do, so you don't make the types of decisions that would make a faculty member say, `Are you crazy?' ''
Trani said his leave worked wonders for him: ``I came back very refreshed. It was like starting a new job.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ODU president James Koch will leave Wednesday for a three-month
sabbatical to Australia and Japan.
by CNB