Pass/Fail: The Urgent Need for Strategic Leadership in Higher Education

Higher education has arrived at a crossroads. Demographic changes, a significant student mental health crisis, and AI are just a few factors that will disrupt the industry as we know it in the next decade and beyond. Either colleges and universities figure out how to evolve alongside student needs, technology, and the labor market, or they continue to fall behind due to archaic and unenterprising processes and cultures.

What's at stake is the loss of many institutions that have facilitated social mobility, personal growth, and more connected and meaningful lives for a century or more.

How each institution navigates these headwinds will depend almost entirely on the quality of its leadership. Higher education administrators can no longer afford to just be subject matter experts in their areas and perpetuate the silos so common in academia. They must understand how to connect academic product strategy, brand, enrollment, philanthropy, and culture to drive entrepreneurial initiatives and change.

Those key areas of strategic leadership are what Pass/Fail centers on. Written by seasoned higher education strategist and marketer Dr. Suzan Brinker, the book is at once inspiring and practical, combining personal narrative with case studies from leaders at liberal arts colleges, large private universities, and public research institutions.

"Suzan Brinker, through her candid first-hand accounts of leading and supporting higher-education institutions of all types, draws us a roadmap for creating strategic plans and differentiated brands at colleges and universities. I particularly love the book's emphasis on continual student-feedback loops, creating a sense of belonging for learners, and making collaborative decisions in an industry dotted with silos but desperate for a new path forward. Pass/Fail offers us several stepping-stones on that vital path, reigniting in its readers a belief that we can, indeed, honor our institutions' storied pasts while moving headlong toward a bold new future. Thought-provoking, practical, candid, insightful, and validating, Pass/Fail is a must-read for higher-education employees up, down, and across the organizational chart." - Kate Colbert, Higher-Education Marketing Consultant and Leadership Coach, and Author of Commencement: The Beginning of a New Era in Higher Education

"Higher Ed needs real tools and real talk to strategize effectively. Pass/Fail helps us do both at a time of urgent need." - Karlyn Crowley, Provost, Ohio Wesleyan University