In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Adrienne Lu documents the widespread presence of interim hires for postsecondary administration positions, arguing that this is an “age of interims.” The author states that the number of interim positions at US institutions has exponentially increased, partly because institutions are taking their time to search for candidates to fill high-level permanent positions who can navigate the sector’s pressing issues. Lu notes that having an overabundance of interim leaders brings unique challenges that can have negative implications for both the institutions and the interim administrators. While interim administrators can create “inconvenient bureaucratic snafus” for their institutions, the interim leaders themselves are often faced with tackling longstanding problems in a short timeframe without the adequate resources to do so.
