Aja Johnson is Senior Program Manager at the United Negro College Fund Institute for Capacity Building.
Walter M. Kimbrough is Executive Vice President at the United Negro College Fund.
We often talk about sustainability in higher education as if it were a race measured in quarters, dashboards, and presidential contracts. But at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), sustainability doesn’t, and can’t, happen on a stopwatch. It’s something that occurs over time, through trust, alignment, and leaders who are given the space to build.
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to work with an HBCU president (and for one of us serve as a president), then you know their leadership is rarely transactional. It is grounded in legacy, relationships, and a deep understanding of the HBCU mission. Yet, too often, our conversations about HBCU presidents and their leadership stability are framed through a deficit lens: Who’s leaving? How fast? And why can’t they just “fix it”?
United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF) latest January 2026 report on presidential tenure and leadership stability invites us to ask a better question: What does stable HBCU leadership look and feel like, and what does it require from all of us to get there?
BULDING ON A STRONG FOUNDATION
What the report makes clear is that there is strategy and beauty in stability. Making abrupt leadership changes can destabilize an institution and its progress. Leadership stability is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a strategic tool for institutional legacy. Time, the greatest resource, allows leaders to learn institutional culture, align with boards, build trust with students, faculty, and alumni, steward resources, and plan beyond the immediate crisis they are faced with at any given the moment. How can these things be accomplished if the door to the president’s office is constantly revolving?
Leadership transitions carry a cost and one that is not just financial, but cultural as well. When presidents cycle in and out, institutions lose momentum, institutional memory, and long-term vision. What looks like change can be disruption posing as progress.
Yes, there are instances where a presidential transition is necessary for the health of the institution and how that is handled can be either helpful or harmful. Yet, we rarely place the responsibility where it truly belongs. Presidents are expected to perform miracles on compressed timelines and with a capacity-restrained team, while boards, funders, and systems remain impatient for outcomes without exploring ways to support.
Presidents are asked to facilitate transformation without those who ask for it knowing what it takes to sustain it.
DOING THE CRITICAL WORK
We can count tenure lengths and turnover rates all we want; but numbers alone won’t get us to solutions. Numbers tell a story about what is happening, but it doesn’t tell us why or offer a roadmap on how to do better.
Some HBCUs have demonstrated that stable, consecutive presidencies are possible and the benefits are clear. Institutions like Benedict College, Wiley University, and Xavier University of Louisiana appear to have “cracked the code” on leadership stability, proving to be a model for how boards, search firms, and institutional stakeholders can create strategic practices, thoughtful presidential selection, and intentional onboarding that act as levers to enable stability.
If we want different outcomes for HBCUs, we must change the systems surrounding their leaders. That means search firms grounding their search processes and committees in lived experience, boards committing to governance alignment and presidential support, and funders willing to align expectations with institutional reality.
Our report goes beyond naming the challenge and begins the work of identifying pathways and strategies to move towards stability. By focusing on improving presidential searches, succession planning and onboarding, and reimaging what strong board governance looks like, the recommendations point to actionable steps to support presidents for the long term.
MOVING FORWARD WITH FORTITUDE
This work can’t be done in isolation and requires intentional partnership. UNCF plans to lean in by leading a collective effort with support organizations, former and current presidents, search firms, and boards to create the environment necessary for HBCU presidents not just to survive, but to lead with lasting impact. Leadership stability is the momentum that makes meaningful change possible. Until we treat time as a strategic resource, we will continue to confuse disruption for progress. Leadership stability at HBCUs is not a sprint and it cannot be built on a stopwatch.