Managing at the Yield Point: Leadership Reflections from the 2026 Higher Ed Conference Season - Part 4: A Profession in Contraction
Part 4: A Profession In Contraction
Ambition, Conferences, and the Ghost of NCORE
Key takeaways:
A significant threat to the pipeline of leadership is top AVP talent who no longer desire the VP or Presidential role. Watching their mentors weather the onslaught of political scrutiny with little institutional protection, aspiring leaders are having serious second thoughts about moving up.
The drop in annual conference attendance and the loss of cornerstone professional spaces like NCORE is a canary in the coal mine for the profession.
In the last part, I described all the ways senior leaders described a slow betrayal of the values core to the profession. This grief, disappointment, and resentment grows each day as leaders are told to do things many feel deeply conflicted over: overseeing the scrubbing of websites for the words “diversity” and “equity,” changing department names and position titles, closing down departments.
They witnessed their President make decisions that were deeply painful for them to implement. Witnessing how some peers quickly and gleefully abandoned efforts and gains of equity-minded, impactful initiatives and programs that took years to stand up and build, some found themselves in quiet rage as they struggled to support their teams demoralized and fearful about their professional future.
Some of these decisions haunted them. Haunted them in ways that kept them up at night and created self-doubt about efficacy in their role and whether what they were doing was actually going to help students.
They never thought they would be at this moment.
Signs of a Profession in Trouble
Collapsing professional pipeline: AVPs shared over and over that they were unsure of or simply no longer wanted to move up after watching their mentors, Presidents, and VPs endure unethical political pressure. For every pillar honored, there were stories of disappointment and cynicism about university Presidents and leaders who have capitulated to federal pressures and other state politics. Now these AVPs just want the chance to do their job well.
Others questioned whether or not their institution was right for them anymore. The deeper struggle to maintain the moral and ethical foundations of higher ed during a time of instability caused others to contemplate leaving the field as a whole. Some wondered out loud if becoming a consultant could be a way to have control of their work and continue to make the kind of impact they previously felt they were making.
Sustainability of conferences: My quick math revealed between 30-50% in conference attendance. Some couldn’t get approved for funding or they had the funding but couldn’t spare the time to attend because there was just too much work they were holding. I have been attending higher ed conferences for over two decades now and could feel the difference: the rooms felt closer together, more smaller rooms that gave the feeling of fullness, less people walking through the hallways and to/from the hotels and restaurants, and everyone gathered in and huddled together in the lobby and bar at the main conference hotel while nearby overflow hotel lobbies were empty.
Rumors were abound about potential layoffs at national associations and the elimination of smaller niche conferences. I was sad for a moment because I’ve attended the NASPA AVP conference the past several years and it is absolutely one of my favorite small conferences to attend because I am able to have real human conversations with at least half the participants.
The Ghost of NCORE and Smaller Conferences
The shuttering of the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE), the largest gathering of equity-minded professionals in education for the past 37 years, left over 5000 attendees without a professional home. I worked at institutions where professionals would save up their professional development funds and forgo attending any other professional development just to be able to afford going to this expensive conference. I met quite a number of those mid-level professionals at NADOHE who were first time attendees, trying to navigate a professional space with the sessions historically focused on topics for Senior Diversity Officers.
With the plummeting attendance at all conferences I went to, I wonder will the profession be able to sustain conferences as a primary professional development investment in higher education? What will professionals invest money in now if their peers aren’t showing up to conferences? Will niche conferences be eliminated?
A few shared that colleagues decided to go to smaller conferences like Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education. They successfully justified to their supervisor the benefit of attending a smaller conference where ROI was clearer. (APAHE 2026 occurred in April, welcomed about 1300 attendees, and sold out well before the conference.)
How do these changes in the profession shape the way you think about your own professional development and growth and long term sustainability in the profession? Do you think that long-held practices for individual growth including mentorship and network and presenting at professional conferences are still effective?
In the last part of this series, I imagine the near futures of the profession that help us rebuild the leadership pipeline and regenerate hope for senior leaders and aspiring leaders.
