Have you ever seen your college president outside of graduation or huge event? Do you think yours is just one in a sea of faces the president might glimpse and never remember? Do you even know his/her name? If you answered yes to these questions, you’re a victim of an uncool college president. This is very prevalent in college and universities around the world. Not all college presidents are the same however. Some are actually cool. Here are five ways to know your college or university president is cool.
1. Your president actually takes the time to be seen.
Most college presidents are so busy doing college business that they have no time for college students. As a result, you never actually see the president unless they’re wearing a big smile and giving you some vague congratulatory sentiment while handing you the most expensive piece of paper you’ll ever buy. You have a cool president when you see him/her around on campus a few times per semester doing nothing more than hanging with the students. The most respected college presidents are those that can take time out of running the college and actually being in the college.
2. They actually know your name.
Now this may be a long stretch. The typical student can’t even remember 10 of their classmates’ names from their Freshman Comp class. A college usually has thousands of students, so you might be able to give the president some slack; however, this makes it even cooler for a president to try to know some students by name. It is not enough to know the names of the biggest donors to the college – chances are the president even knows the names of their children and pets. To score big in the cool book, the president needs to commit some student names to memory (and not just for a speech). This goes a long way.
3. Responds to you directly on social media.
Let’s face it Mr./Ms. President, telephone calls, face-to-face, and some might even say emails, are so yesterday. You know you have a cool president if you pick up your phone and you see a notification come in on your Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat from the president posting or responding to something you posted. After propping your mouth close from the initial jaw-drop, all reality will come rushing back to you that you have a cool president. For a president to be considered cool, he/she needs to be relevant to the students. Being able to reach them by their preferred way of communication tips the cool-meter in the green zone.
4. You ask for a meeting and you actually get one.
Most times you meet the president if the media or dean requests it. What do I mean? Well this particular meeting would be either to save face or expel you – perhaps both. But what if you actually asked for a meeting with the president and got through? What if the meeting was simply to talk about how much the cafeteria lights make the bananas look spoiled? Whatever your reasons, being able to get access to your college president for a meeting makes that president cool. Notwithstanding the fact that being a college president is perhaps 80 percent meetings, most meetings are not with students. You can tick the cool box for your college president if you get a chance to meet – it’s as rare as the seeing Bigfoot.
5. You have your president on speed dial.
Perhaps the ultimate way to know if your president is cool is if you actually got his/her cell phone number. Understandably, a president would want to be careful not to cross the line between student and faculty, but letting a student have his/her cell phone number (maybe a college issued cell – just to be safe), definitely inflates the cool factor for the president. The truth is, the president gives his/her number to those considered important. Well, aren’t you important?
Even if your president doesn’t cover all of these, if even two or three of these are present, you can be sure you have a cool president.
