The Deleterious Effects of Vampire Leadership

Leadership in academic institutions and professional societies plays a critical role in shaping the future of scholarship, governance, and educational equity. However, a persistent trend, particularly in long-established organizations, reveals that retired faculty, such as professors emeriti, often fill executive leadership roles. While emeriti may continue to offer valuable mentorship and institutional memory, their appointment to decision-making positions raises significant structural and ethical concerns. This commentary critiques the reliance on retired academics for active leadership, highlighting key risks including diminished accountability, generational disconnection, ethical incongruence, and leadership bottlenecks that impede the advancement of early- and mid-career scholars. Drawing on governance literature and demographic data, the article calls for structural reforms that promote active, inclusive, and forward-looking leadership models. Practical recommendations include revising governance bylaws, establishing advisory roles for emeriti, and fostering intergenerational partnerships to ensure sustainable academic leadership. The future of academia cannot be led solely by the past. It must be shared by those actively engaged in its present with the assistance of those who have experience in such roles before retirement.

Academic Freedom is a sacrosanct value on American university campuses. Virtually all research institutions, public and private, have explicitly adopted some form of the American Association of University Professors’ 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure or the organization’s the 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom & Tenure. Because of the near universal acceptance of the principle of academic freedom, there is a common belief that the United States Constitution recognizes academic freedom and, more importantly, confers “special rights” on the persons and institutions of academia. Yet, despite its almost universal acceptance by faculty and administrators and despite its constant use as a constitutional theory whenever faculty and/or administrators dislike a government program, academic freedom is a constitutional myth. The rights of individual academics or of academic institutions are no greater than the rights of individual non-academics or of non-academic agencies or institutions. Put another way, from a constitutional standpoint, there is nothing special about the academic setting. Academic Freedom is no greater, and no lesser, than the constitutional rights of non-academics or ordinary state agencies. Nevertheless, academic freedom must be respected as a practical reality. There are important public policy reasons why university professors should have wide latitude in their research, writing, and teaching efforts. At the same time, institutions should be given a large amount of discretion in determining the scope of their missions. In other words, while academic freedom is not a federal constitutional value, it should be an important public policy consideration and, perhaps, even a state constitutional value. The purpose of this Article is twofold. First, it seeks to demonstrate that academic freedom is a constitutional myth. Institutional academic freedom, the idea that institutions of higher education have a federal constitutional right to be free from outside control, is simply incompatible with constitutional realities. Moreover, professors do not have an individual constitutional right to academic freedom. In short, the rights of professors and the institutions that employ them are no greater than the rights of non-academic employees and non-academic organizations. Second, it attempts to explain why respect for academic freedom is a practical reality.

Much has been written about myths and facts concerning teaching surveys completed by students at academic institutions. The myths usually emerge among faculty members based on their subjective point of view, personal experience, or intuitive interpretation of events. The following case study is the first of its kind, and it follows how academic faculty members evaluate performance measurement of academic teaching and teaching surveys in particular, while examining the change that has occurred over the last decade. The case analysis, examining instructors’ evaluation of teaching surveys completed by students, is based on a group of senior faculty members in Israeli academic institutions. The current study is unique in examining how academic faculty members perceive alternative options for measuring their overall performance in academic teaching as manifested in teaching surveys. One hundred eighty-two questionnaires were collected from senior faculty members at academic institutions, comprised of open-ended questions concerning suggestions for alternative teaching evaluation surveys and their structure. The research findings show that the instructors mention “professional” alternatives and perceive teaching surveys as an unprofessional and populist tool. Assuming that students’ voices and their opinion of teaching are important, professional alternatives for evaluating and improving teaching should find expression—and instructors relate significantly to professional elements at academic institutions as potentially helpful factors.

Steven Rose makes his case for an academic boycott of Israel in response to the situation of Palestinian scientists.

BackgroundWith COVID‐19, online opportunities to support families living with dementia are becoming increasingly important. However, academic institutions are typically not prepared to develop and test online platforms. We present a case study to describe steps for creating an infrastructure to test an online platform, WeCareAdvisor (WCA). WCA provides caregivers disease education and tailored strategies to manage dementia‐related behavioral symptoms using the DICE Approach. WCA was previously tested in a small, randomized trial demonstrating positive caregiver outcomes. To advance its evidence‐base, WCA is being tested in a NIA‐funded Stage III efficacy trial with a national sample of 326 caregivers.MethodTo test WCA, an infrastructure in the academic institution had to be created to address HIPAA compliance, privacy considerations, integrate user and developer input, and support rigorous trial methodologies. Through key informant interviews and literature reviews, we established a six‐step process: 1) Identifying and engaging key stakeholders (legal, Information Technology offices, research team, software company); 2) Creating software development agreement with stakeholder input; 3) Detailing scope of work and an oversight structure of software company, 4) Developing formal agreements with the software company, 5) Conducting security assessments with university IT offices; and 6) Establishing formal vendor status of the software company. This also necessitated new roles and responsibilities of research team members.ResultThe six‐step process was labor intensive, transpired over 12 months, and involved over 15 iterative meetings with investigators, project staff, and stakeholders. Careful coordination of stakeholders to provide practical and iterative guidance at each of the six steps was essential. Deliberations resulted in app store access, URLs and domains, and compliance and privacy statements reviewed and approved by various university offices, and then launching WCA on app stores for access by study participants.ConclusionResearchers and academic institutions have varying levels of understanding and readiness to engage in infrastructure development to rigorously test online platforms. Our approach resulted in an effective infrastructure for testing WCA which can be used by other researchers. Development of an infrastructure requires new skills for investigators, engaging multiple stakeholders, appropriately budgeting for this activity, and allocating sufficient start‐up time.

Healthcare is rapidly evolving, with both academic institutions and industry playing critical roles in shaping its future. This paper explores the application of the community of practice (CoP) framework connecting these sectors in the context of health informatics supported by the European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI). We demonstrate how to explore and foster collaboration, build capacity, and disseminate knowledge across academic institutions and industry based on the principles of the CoP framework. Data were collected through a document analysis, including committee documents, research publications, and case studies of academic-industry partnerships. The findings show that the CoP framework can be applied to the informatics domain to support and foster collaboration between academic institutions and the healthcare industry. This work suggests different strategies to enhance collaboration, innovation, professional development, and leadership within the health informatics community for more sustainable health systems.

This study is a pioneer study examining the significance of retirement in terms of lost investments and outcomes. Research findings on the output of academic faculty and on measures of excellence in higher education indicate that upon retirement the academic institution as an organization loses not only faculty who are still capable of contributing both to research and to teaching, but rather also two other important products: valuable knowledge and experience accumulated by senior faculty in the academic system in light of the institution’s investments in them. 
 
 107 questionnaires were collected from senior faculty members in a case study of one academic institution. A combined research method was utilized, consisting of qualitative and statistical analysis, with the aim of exploring the significance of retirement in terms of lost input and output, as perceived by academic faculty members. The research findings indicate that indeed, as perceived by the faculty, academic institutions as an organization lose faculty who are still capable of contributing to both research and teaching, as well as valuable knowledge and experience accumulated by senior faculty members within the academic system, after being nurtured by the academic institution.

Strategic management is a built-in process for many universities around the world. As part of an encroaching (or perhaps already encroached) facsimile of corporate managerialism, centrally central planned blueprints for success are developed by university managers in the hope of controlling the future. These best laid plans are backed up by all sorts of key performance indicators, measurement systems, reward programmes and so on. The strategic purpose is for a vision of the university to come to be imagined from on high and articulated in the here and now. An unknown future is dragged back into the knowledge of the present, and all these technologies of control are put in place such that this vision becomes tomorrow’s reality. The future, it is hubristically believed, can be controlled by the force of managerial power. Research strategy is a core part of this, with academic institutions specifying which areas of research they will support, and honing in the exact outcomes that they expect from academics at an individual level. In this chapter I want to explore a particular dimension of the managerialist turn in academia. Specifically, I will consider the fate of academic freedom in the neoliberal university and what this means not just for the future of the university, but also for the future of democracy. Academic freedom has always been closely linked to democracy, especially through Polyani’s defence and articulation of it. However, whereas Polyani feared the effects of science being controlled by a totalitarian state, today we are more in danger of academic inquiry being controlled by a totalitarian university. This chapter will consider the pressing issue of academic freedom, following Derrida, through a temporalization that connects an inherited past to a future to come. Academic freedom is less an old reality as much as it is a promise and a commitment. This is a freedom that we have inherited from the democratic tradition of the university and the belief that free inquiry is a central part of social liberty; not just liberty for individual scholars but for society as a whole. This chapter will argue that the neoliberal university is squandering this inheritance, deploying the spoils of knowledge that it has generated in the past for a new set of market- and financially based goals. Where knowledge might once have been thought of as the end, it is now the means to ambitions driven by market and financial rationalities. Despite this managerial recklessness, this chapter will also consider how this inheritance is not yet depleted, and how the values that connect the university with democracy have not (and perhaps cannot) be so easily depleted by the force of management.

Intrinsically flawed health systems by design.

This chapter explores the subtle yet insidious nature of vampire leaders within academic institutions. Using allegorical references from vampire mythology, it examines how these figures manipulate power dynamics, exploit subordinates, and create toxic work environments. Drawing from case studies, the chapter outlines the various disguises vampire leaders adopt to maintain control, from charismatic manipulators to authoritarian figures. The chapter provides tools to recognize these harmful leaders, empowering faculty and staff to challenge their influence. It argues that awareness and collective action are necessary to dismantle their stronghold over academic institutions.

Chapter 87 - Basics of starting a company, licensing, partnerships, and acquisition

Editorial Perspective: A parable for climate collapse?

To determine the effect of prolonged length of stay (LOS) after esophagectomy on long term survival. Complications after esophagectomy have a significant impact in short-term survival. The specific effect of prolonged LOS after esophagectomy is unclear. We hypothesized that postoperative complications that occur after esophagectomy, resulting in prolonged LOS, have a detrimental effect on long term survival. All patients undergoing esophagectomy between 2004 and 2014 were identified in the National Cancer Database. To eliminate the confounding effect of short-term mortality, we included only patients who survived at least 90 days postoperatively. Demographics, disease characteristics, and perioperative outcomes were analyzed. Postoperative LOS was used as a surrogate for postoperative complications. The highest quintile of LOS was defined as excessive LOS (ELOS). Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards survival analyses were performed to examine survival. A total of 20,719 patients were identified. Of those 3826 had ELOS, with median LOS 26days (range 18-168days). Their median survival was 30.6 months compared to 53.6 months in the entire non-ELOS group (P < 0.0001). After multivariate analysis ELOS (odds ratio 1.56, 95% confidence interval 1.46-1.67) was an independent predictor of overall mortality. Higher disease stage, higher age, male sex, higher Charlson/Deyo comorbidity score, and readmission after discharge were also significant negative predictors of long-term survival, whereas surgery in an academic institution, being at the highest income quartile and having private or Medicare insurance predicted longer survival (all P < 0.001). Postoperative complications after esophagectomy, resulting in ELOS, predict lower long-term survival independent of other factors. Counseling patients about surgery should include the detrimental long-term effects of postoperative complications and ELOS. Avoiding ELOS (LOS exceeding 18 days) could be considered a quality metric after esophagectomy.

Three decades into the global HIV pandemic, hindsight has become a bittersweet ally. Hindsight has shown that it is ultimately futile to address HIV/AIDS without simultaneously mounting a campaign to embolden human rights; it has taught us that the war against disease must include a battle against persistent poverty, national debt, and other structural barriers to human development; and it has demonstrated that HIV/AIDS efforts cannot and must not be developed in isolation from other health care– and health systems–related challenges, particularly in the case of resource-limited countries. Indeed, our three-decade long response to HIV/AIDS has yielded this paramount lesson: the energy, global attention, and resources that are being amassed to combat HIV/AIDS must be effectively leveraged to achieve broader progress in the areas of human rights, socioeconomic development, and public infrastructure, including ‘‘human infrastructure.’’ Too often, however, and despite our best intentions, this lesson is not effectively heeded. As a result, our programmatic response often falls into silos and/or fails to address systemic and root issues at the heart of the HIV pandemic. As a result, key opportunities are missed. There is a danger that this may again become the case with our efforts to dramatically expand the health workforce as a response to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and other resource-poor regions. If we wish to make a sustainable difference, without causing undue harm, we must guard vigilantly against this possibility. The challenge of scarce health human resources in subSaharan Africa is not new. This challenge predates HIV/AIDS and has preoccupied health planners, health system administrators, government leaders, academics, and other key stakeholders throughout the African continent for many decades. Scarcity of health care providers and the interconnected social, economic, and political variables that are root causes of this problem are all, themselves, epidemic in nature. From the structural adjustment policies that have forced African nations to scale back social spending, to the global poaching of developing nation physicians, nurses, and other health care providers, and now the deepening loss of health care providers to endemic diseases, African nations are all too familiar with the human resources for health challenges at hand. What is new, however, is the unprecedented global resolve—and the resources—that are currently being amassed to address this challenge as a pillar of the global HIV/AIDS response. Perhaps, the single greatest indication of this new opportunity is captured in the United States’ push to increase by 140 000 the production of health workers—physicians, nurses, and paraprofessionals—by 2013, as part of the reauthorized President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). While the late stage at which this shared resolve has emerged is a testament to our continued reliance on hindsight, it nevertheless provides us a critical opportunity to improve health and human development throughout the globe. For us to realize the potential of this opportunity, however, we require innovative and carefully considered approaches and a willingness to forge new partnerships and pool resources across agencies and donor countries. We also require bold and frank discussion regarding the current capacity of academic training institutions throughout the African continent to adequately prepare physicians, nurses, and public health specialists for the health care and health management challenges posed by the HIV pandemic, in combination with other, local endemic epidemics, not to mention the delivery of primary health care. This is not to question the ability or commitment of either existing health and health care professionals or those who were charged with their training but the extent to which academic training institutions will be able to produce adequate cadres and numbers of health and health care professionals, with the appropriate skills mix necessary to address societal needs, unless there is collective resolve from the donor and technical assistance communities to help these institutions overcome

Grant administration plays a pivotal role in the success of research and academic endeavors. However, in Pakistan, academic institutions often face challenges in this domain, primarily due to a lack of specialized training and infrastructure. This research paper presents the outcomes of a comprehensive capacity-strengthening workshop, hosted in two cities, aimed at improving grant administration skills in Pakistani academic institutions. A pre and post-survey analysis was conducted to assess participants' knowledge and experience. A pre-survey method was used to develop the learning objectives and content for the workshop, whereas the post-survey tool was used to assess the immediate effect of a two-day capacity-strengthening workshop on participants' knowledge of grants. Response rates for Karachi participants were 86% pre and 87% post, while for Islamabad participants, they were 63% pre and 57% post. Notably, participants in Islamabad, where infrastructure and support services are often less advanced, exhibited significant improvement in their understanding of grant administration processes. Factors contributing to the workshop's success included its dynamic content, interactive learning methods, and an inclusive learning environment. The outcomes of this research provide insights into the effectiveness of tailored capacity-strengthening programs in addressing the unique needs of diverse academic institutions. In addition, it highlights the potential of collaborative learning, where participants from various backgrounds come together to enhance their collective knowledge. This initiative underscores the importance of enhancing grant administration skills to foster a more robust research ecosystem in Pakistan.