| This study sought to determine the role, if any, that presidential leadership played in an academic turnaround process. A single site case study approach was utilized to examine the position of institutional stress indicators in enrollment, finances and accreditation from 1990 to 2010 at Notre Dame College of Ohio, a small Catholic, formerly all-women's college that transitioned to coeducation in 2001.;There were three phases of the research. First, data mining techniques were utilized to determine the status of institutional stress indicators before and after a presidential transition in 2003. Second, ethnographic content analysis of documents and records from 1990--2003 was conducted to determine if the administration and board prior to July 2003 were aware of the institutional stress indicators faced by the college and what steps, if any, they took to ameliorate these stress indicators. Third, semi-structured interviews were used to determine what role, if any, presidential leadership played in the turnaround of Notre Dame College (NDC) after a presidential transition in 2003.;Findings indicated that Notre Dame was faced with documented enrollment and financial stress indicators between 1990 and 2003, and beginning in 2000 stress related to accreditation status. Findings also indicated that the board and administration of the college were aware of these stress indicators between 1990 and 2001 and sought unsuccessfully to ameliorate them, prior to engaging in a mission expansion campaign to transition NDC to a coeducational institution in 2001. Findings also indicated that presidential leadership, and specifically new leadership, played an important role in the turnaround of the stress indicators facing Notre Dame after a presidential transition in 2003. |
