April 8, 2021

Are any of your predictions about her management style holding up?

Treeholm’s appointment as interim vice president was met with great enthusiasm. Finally, the school was getting someone who was “one of their own,” a person who understood the culture, knew the faculty, and could get things done.

It was not long before the campus realized that things were not moving and that Treeholm, despite her long-standing popularity, had difficulty making tough decisions. Her desire to please people and to try to take care of everyone made it difficult for her to choose opposing alternatives. (To make matters worse, she had trouble planning, organizing, and managing her time.)

The biggest problem was that she did not understand her role as the number-two person at the top of the organization. The president expected her to support him and his decisions without question. Over time the president also expected her to implement some of his decisions—to do his dirty work. This became particularly problematic when it involved firing people or saying “no” to longtime faculty cronies. Treeholm also found herself uncomfortable with the other members of the president’s senior staff. Although she was not the only woman (the general counsel, a very bright, analytical woman was part of the group), she found the behavior and decision-making style to be different from what she was used to handling.

Most of the men took their lead from the president and discussed very little in the meetings. Instead, they tried to influence decisions privately. Often, a decision arrived in a meeting as a fait accompli. Treeholm felt excluded and wondered why, as vice president, she felt so powerless.

In time, she and the president spent less and less time together talking and discussing how to move the campus along. Although her relations with the men on the senior staff were cordial, she talked mostly to her female friends.

Treeholm’s friends, especially her close-knit group of longtime female colleagues, all assured her that it was because she was “interim.” “Just stay out of trouble,” they told her. Of course, this just added to her hesitancy when it came to making tough choices.

As the president’s own image on campus shifted after his “honeymoon year,” Treeholm decided to listen to her friends rather than follow the president’s lead. After all, her reputation on campus was at stake.