A social-networking college prez gets unfriended by his faculty

By Jeffrey R. Young

[Update: RISD Provost to Step Down in Aftermath of No-Confidence Vote (5/4/2011)]

John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, may be the only college president to publicly describe his leadership as "in beta," a product rolled out before it's fully tested.

He's tinkered with using social media to connect with constituents on and off campus. He's blogged, posted video messages on YouTube, and tweeted more than any other college president. (He has more than 175,000 Twitter followers.)

He even has a new book due out this month, called Redesigning Leadership (MIT Press), relating scenes from his three years at RISD and samples of his tweets. One example: "When people ask if I've stopped designing I say, 'No. I'm designing how to talk about/with/for our #RISD community.'"
Enlarge Image A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 2

Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle

John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, was associate director at MIT's Media Lab but has never been a dean or a provost. He says he has learned that the "shortest communication path between two people is straight talk." He put that in a tweet.
close A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 2

Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle

John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, was associate director at MIT's Media Lab but has never been a dean or a provost. He says he has learned that the "shortest communication path between two people is straight talk." He put that in a tweet.
Enlarge Image A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 3

Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle

Peter Hocking, now a part-time faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, stepped down in frustration as director of a popular community-service program when the president tried to shut it down. "I understand leadership in a very different way than he does," he says.
close A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 3

Kelvin Ma for The Chronicle

Peter Hocking, now a part-time faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design, stepped down in frustration as director of a popular community-service program when the president tried to shut it down. "I understand leadership in a very different way than he does," he says.
Enlarge Image A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 4

Jane Androski

Student artists have posted stickers around campus expressing their disapproval of President Maeda.
close A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 4

Jane Androski

Student artists have posted stickers around campus expressing their disapproval of President Maeda.
Enlarge Image A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 5

John Maeda

John Maeda's "Commute" (2003). The artist-turned-college-president used Jell-O gelatin to create layers of color.
close A College Unfriends Its Social-Networking President 5

John Maeda

John Maeda's "Commute" (2003). The artist-turned-college-president used Jell-O gelatin to create layers of color.

But many professors at the art school do not appreciate being part of Mr. Maeda's high-tech experiment in leadership. In March, more than 80 percent of faculty members voted "no confidence" in his performance. To them, all that tweeting feels more like distraction than engagement.
More: Chronicle of Higher Education