\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trying time to be an admissions dean.<\/p>\n
More than two years after the Supreme Court ruled that colleges and universities could no longer consider race in admissions decisions, the Trump administration has launched a crusade to ensure institutions are abiding by that decision. Government officials have demanded colleges submit detailed data on the racial makeup of their admitted students, cast suspicion on so-called proxies for race in the admissions process and required some universities to reform their admissions practices\u2014without specifying what, exactly, needed changing. (The administration has also used the decision as justification to call for the cancellation of other diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, from scholarships to student lounges.)<\/p>\n
Then again, according to Angel P\u00e9rez, a longtime admissions dean and the CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, it\u2019s never not<\/em> a trying time to be an admissions dean.<\/p>\n Hence the title of his forthcoming book, The Hottest Seat on Campus<\/em> (Harvard Education Press), which he admits freely to have borrowed, albeit subconsciously, from a 2014 Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> feature. Admissions deans are incredibly visible, he said in a recent interview with Inside Higher Ed<\/em>; their failures and successes are known to all\u2014and have consequences well beyond their own offices.<\/p>\n Now, as these leaders grapple with the new challenges the Trump administration has brought\u2014and as the first day of NACAC\u2019s annual conference kicks off in Columbus, Ohio\u2014P\u00e9rez hopes his book, which is built upon interviews with dozens of admissions leaders from across the country, will prove an important resource for others struggling to navigate the hot seat. Inside Higher Ed<\/em> spoke with him over the phone about his advice for admissions deans and the changing landscape of higher education. <\/p>\n The interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n Q: I wanted to start off by asking about your personal story. What made you interested in holding an admissions role yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n A: <\/strong>I think my story is actually very typical of most people who go into the admissions profession. I still call myself an accidental admissions dean\u2014this is not what I was supposed to be doing for a living.<\/p>\n So many people go into the admissions profession by actually being involved on their college campus, as was I. I was involved in student activities, I was a residence hall director, \u2029I dabbled in tour guiding.\u2029 The dean of students at Skidmore [College], Dean Joe Tolliver, who has now retired but is still very active in student affairs, said to me, \u201cYou\u2019d be really great in higher education. You should consider a job in higher education.\u201d And to be honest, I didn\u2019t think that those were real jobs, on a college campus. So, I didn\u2019t take it very seriously until someone in the admissions office, Roslyn Estrada, said to me, \u201cAngel, there\u2019s going to be an opening in the admissions office. You should apply. You\u2019d be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n And eventually I said yes to applying because I thought I would go and do that for one year until I found a real job. And many, many years later, here I\u00a0am, and [I am] delighted that I took that calling.<\/p>\n So, it was really the taps on the shoulders. But I will say\u2014it\u2019s one of the reasons I\u2019ve written the book\u2014that I think we need to change that paradigm and I think we need to change that pathway. I want to create much more intentional pathways into the profession and I want to create much more intentional pathways into leadership.<\/p>\n Q: What would that look like? Do you guys have any initiatives currently underway that are trying to create more intentional pathways?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> [NACAC has] launched a program called NEXT, where we work with admissions counselors who are one to three years in to basically help them understand what growth in the profession can look like, what a pathway can look like.\u2029<\/p>\n The second thing is that, thanks to the support of Strada Education Foundation, we are actually going to be launching a brand new dean\u2019s fellowship, starting in 2026. This is in order to support brand-new deans who are moving into these chairs and cultivate them into leadership. In the book, in the spirit of me being the accidental dean, I write about the fact that one day I was the director of admissions, and the next day, my boss retired and said to me, \u201cThe president would like to speak to you.\u201d And then, all of a sudden, I was the vice president for enrollment, and my job was so fundamentally different. That happens to so many people\u2014it\u2019s kind of like sink or swim. What we want to do at NACAC in the future is create much more intentional leadership growth for deans.<\/p>\n One thing that I aspire to do\u2014we\u2019re not there yet; I\u2019m still looking for the funding\u2014is actually to create a program where those tour guides on college campuses and student interviewers, I would like to actually create a NACAC fellowship for them to learn about what it\u2019s like to go into the profession, to give them a mentor as they\u2019re applying for their first job out of college, into the admissions profession, and then make them a part of the NACAC community.<\/p>\n Q: I enjoyed the section of the book where you were talking about admissions deans as storytellers. Could you describe how that storyteller role differs from others on campus and also how effective storytelling translates to outcomes for the admissions office?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> I always have believed that that admissions deans are chief storytellers of an institution. The reason I say that is because they have such a large constituency. They\u2019re not just telling stories on their campus; they\u2019re also telling the story of the institution outside of campus, right? They\u2019re talking to high school counselors. They\u2019re talking to students. They\u2019re talking to people like you, for example, in the media who are trying to understand the complex admissions world that we have built.<\/p>\n What I have seen in my experience is that so many admissions deans fail in the role because they did not embrace the role of storytelling. A big part of their job is to actually educate the community about the challenges of enrollment, to educate the community about the fact that enrollment is all about trade-offs; in the environment that we\u2019re living in, everybody\u2019s not going to get what they want on campus.<\/p>\n Q: You describe navigating admissions during COVID-19 and the bungled FAFSA rollout of 2024. What takeaways from those two events have stuck with you going forward?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> These are really the messages that I took away from the teams that I\u00a0interviewed. One is, during both of those crises\u2014but I would argue any crisis\u2014the importance of communication. I mean, we were just talking about storytelling, right? The importance of bringing your staff along, your constituents, making sure that people are feeling informed, even during incredible uncertainty.\u2029 We\u2019re living that again right now, so the book is very timely.<\/p>\n I think the other thing that stands out for me\u2014something that, again, was highlighted through these amazing deans I interviewed in the book\u2014is the importance of building teams and making sure that you rely on those team members and not carry the weight of leading in crisis by yourself. I think the leaders who crashed and burned during COVID, during the FAFSA debacle and during all of the different crises that we face, these are individuals who try to do it all by themselves. The reality of the matter is none of us can do it by ourselves. If you can put together a really diverse team who thinks differently, who complements each other in different diverse ways, you\u2019re going to be set up for a lot more success. And obviously empowering them is going to be a big part of that as well.<\/p>\n Q: On a similar note, this book was written before the series of crises that we\u2019re going through with the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on higher education. Is there any piece of advice you would add to the book if you could about navigating this current moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> I think so much of the advice [in the book] actually is very much translatable to what\u2019s happening today. The difference is, the level of change is coming so much faster than ever before, even faster than COVID, even faster than FAFSA, because every day the Trump administration could say something that fundamentally upends how we do our work. I think that\u2019s what\u2019s different.<\/p>\n So if I could have a whole other chapter in the book, I would actually focus on how to lead in an era of uncertainty, and the skill sets that you need, personal and professional, to actually navigate change that\u2019s coming faster than ever.<\/p>\n One of the quotes [that] I use in every presentation I do right now is from Justin Trudeau, and this quote just blows me away. He said it at the World Economic Forum: \u201cThe pace of change has never been this fast and it will never be this slow again.\u201d To me, that is our new reality. And so I think I\u00a0would focus a lot on, how do you keep organizations stable when the news cycle is changing every single day?<\/p>\n The other thing that I would focus on is actually how to be unresponsive. What I mean by that is oftentimes we\u2019re so wired to jump at the crisis of the day. One of the things the dean said to me really recently last week was \u201cYou know what? Every time news comes out now, I just sit and I wait, because it might be different tomorrow.\u201d And so there\u2019s also this skill set that I think people need to build of not overreacting when the news cycle is breaking every single day. It\u2019s tough. We\u2019re living in tough times.<\/p>\n Q: If you could go back in time to when you were first starting in admissions, what is one piece of advice that you would give yourself, either from the book or just off the dome?<\/strong><\/p>\n A: <\/strong>I think I would say to myself, \u201cEnjoy this moment.\u201d And the reason I\u00a0would say that is because so many young admissions counselors are so eager to rise in the ranks very quickly. As you saw in the book, I talk about it: The faster you rise up the ranks, it becomes a lot messier and murkier and sometimes painful. As a dean, there were many more days that I\u00a0longed for the simplicity of being on the road, recruiting students, spending my days in high schools and then going back home and reading applications from kids all over the world. It was such a beautiful job with not a ton of pressure.<\/p>\n But then, obviously, I was an eager beaver, and I climbed the ranks actually very quickly;\u2029 I became a dean in my early 30s. I now wish that I had said to myself, \u201cSlow down, enjoy this moment, and don\u2019t be too quick to rise, because those pressures are going to be very, very different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a trying time to be an admissions dean. More than two years after the Supreme Court ruled that colleges and universities could no longer consider race in admissions decisions, the Trump administration has launched a crusade to ensure institutions are abiding by that decision. 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