For provosts working through change: the question a former counseling center psychologist asks first when a new priority arrives.
In one case Eric Klein describes, an institution made a real commitment to improving the student experience and student outcomes. There was broad agreement around the goal, and several initiatives were launched to support it.
Over time, though, the institution struggled to make some of the underlying choices that would have let the work become part of how it operated. Existing priorities continued and responsibilities piled up. In his words, “the people closest to the work were being asked to carry more.” A year or two later, pieces of the effort were still there, but much of the early momentum had faded.
“Announcing a priority and actually making room for it are two very different things,” Eric says. It is the lesson he took from that case, and many of the same themes run through his forthcoming book, The Future of Higher Education: Strategic Leadership for Academic Transformation, published by Koehler Books on December 1. Eric Klein, PhD, is Assistant Provost for Doctoral Research and Student Success at American College of Education.
Much of his work, he says, has lived in “that space between strategy and implementation.” He thinks it is also where “some of the most consequential leadership in higher education happens.” If he had to choose one reader for this piece, he says, it would probably be a provost who knows change is necessary and is working through how to make it happen.
The Question He Asks First
When a new initiative comes forward, one of the first questions Eric asks is what the institution is willing to change to make room for it. “That can be a difficult conversation,” he says, “but I think it is also where strategy becomes real.”
He has asked the same thing in public. In a recent LinkedIn post he wrote that one of the hardest parts of strategy is deciding what not to do. He offered a question he thinks deserves more attention in academic planning: “What has this strategy caused us to stop doing?”
The post also carries an idea he said was reinforced for him at Cornell University’s Higher Education Leadership Program: “A strategy that forecloses nothing, chooses nothing.” Answering it starts with an admission about the plan.
How He Sets Priorities
The admission is that the plan can’t all happen at once. Eric says that sounds simple, but a lot of strategic plans get into trouble because every good idea becomes a priority. “Once that happens, very little is actually prioritized.”
From there he asks what matters most right now. Where is the greatest need? Where can it have the greatest impact? What needs attention now, and what can reasonably wait? Those conversations, he says, should lead to a much smaller set of priorities that people understand and that the institution can realistically support.
I would rather see an institution make meaningful progress on three priorities than make incremental progress on fifteen.
Eric Klein, PhD, Assistant Provost for Doctoral Research and Student Success, American College of Education
The harder part is deciding what the institution is willing to leave undone. He has become much more comfortable with that question over the course of his career. Every yes, he says, is a choice about where time, money and attention will go. If an institution never makes matching choices about what receives less, “we are really asking people to absorb the difference. That is usually where capacity becomes a problem.”
The mission has to help with those choices. Leaving something undone doesn’t mean it lacks value, he says, only that something else needs attention more right now. But the mission can’t be a reason to pursue everything: “If we can connect everything to the mission and use that as a reason to pursue all of it, we have not really prioritized anything.” He points to work with doctoral students to show what that focus can do.
What Changed for Doctoral Students
Eric’s example comes from his work in doctoral education and student success. The effort began with looking closely at where students were encountering challenges in the doctoral program, and with a deliberate choice to concentrate on the points where the people involved believed they could have the greatest impact.
That meant using data to see where students were struggling, looking closely at the processes around those points, and putting attention and resources there. It also meant listening.
Data can tell you where something is happening. Faculty, staff, and students often help you understand why.
Eric, Assistant Provost, American College of Education
Over time, the work contributed to increased student persistence and higher student satisfaction. He says he’s proud of those outcomes because they were tangible: “More students were continuing toward their goals, and they were reporting a better experience along the way.”
The larger lesson, for him, is the value of focus. When something worked, they could build on it, and when the data said something different, they could adjust. A plan is useful, he says, but he is ultimately interested in what happens because of it: “What changed? Did it improve the student experience? What did we learn?” The habit of asking why began in a different job.
From the Counseling Center to the Provost’s Office
Eric began his career in higher education as a Staff Psychologist in the counseling center at Lehigh University. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2008. By his own account, listening to people, asking questions and trying to understand what is underneath an initial response were part of his professional life before he moved into academic administration.
His profile lists the path from there. At Ashford University he was an assistant professor, then a department chair, an associate dean and dean of the Honors College. Next came Grossmont College, where he was Dean, Learning and Technology Resources, then Associate Vice Chancellor, Educational Support Services, for the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, and then his current role at American College of Education.
Leadership has changed how he thinks about yes. Earlier in his career, he wrote in a recent post, he thought one of the best things he could do was say yes: to the committee, the new project, the colleague who needed help, “the opportunity that stretched me.” He still sees “tremendous value in that instinct.” But as responsibilities grow, so does the number of worthwhile things competing for attention. “Eventually, we have to choose.” The counseling center left him with habits he still relies on.
What Clinical Training Taught Him
One is curiosity about resistance. When someone pushes back on a change, Eric’s first instinct is to understand what is behind it. The person may be concerned about the effect on students, or worried about losing something that has worked well. They may be uncertain what the change means for their role, or drawing on experience he simply doesn’t have.
If I treat all of that as obstruction, I may miss information that could help us make a better decision.
Eric, Assistant Provost, American College of Education
Clinical training also taught him to listen closely to the language people use. In a faculty meeting, he says, a conversation that appears to be about a new process may also involve workload, professional identity, trust, or whether people feel they had a meaningful voice in the decision. Understanding that context can change the conversation and, sometimes, the decision itself.
Trust takes time. During significant change, people pay attention to whether you listen, follow through and act consistently with what you say. He credits a mentor with one of the most important lessons he has learned: leadership is ultimately about trust. People need to know that you will listen, tell them the truth and follow through.
That matters when a hard decision arrives. Some of the hardest moments in his career, he says, have involved decisions he knew would affect good people. What he learned was to be “clear about the decision, honest about why it was being made, and available for the conversations that followed.” Leading an institution is very different from practicing psychology, he says, “but the habits I developed as a psychologist have stayed with me throughout my career.” He says he still relies on them today.
Where Eric Is Now
Today Eric is Assistant Provost for Doctoral Research and Student Success at American College of Education. Alongside that work he writes The Academic Strategist, a series of essays on higher education leadership, and has recently brought his writing, speaking and book information together at erickleinphd.com.
AI is part of the conversation, he says, along with the broader changes taking place across higher education. After a recent podcast conversation about AI in higher education, he wrote that human connection is something he believes will remain central as AI becomes more deeply embedded.
The book is the larger project. The Future of Higher Education: Strategic Leadership for Academic Transformation comes out December 1 from Koehler Books and is available for preorder. He wrote that it grew out of nearly two decades of working in higher education, and that it asks how leaders should approach strategy, innovation, student success and organizational change in an environment that continues to evolve. He is looking forward, he says, to “the conversations about higher education leadership that I hope it creates.”
Outside work, in his words: “My family keeps me grounded. Time with my wife, Allison, and our daughter, Remy, has a way of putting everything else back into perspective.”
He has a plain measure for this piece. “If someone reads the article and it causes them to think differently about a decision they are facing at their own institution, I would consider that a success,” he says.
Five Reflections from Eric
What are we willing to change to make room for it? It is one of the first questions Eric asks when a new initiative comes forward.
What has this strategy caused us to stop doing? He thinks the question deserves more attention in academic planning.
What matters most right now? Where is the greatest need, and what can reasonably wait?
What is behind the pushback? Before treating resistance as obstruction, ask what the person may be worried about, uncertain about, or drawing on.
What changed? Did it improve the student experience, and what did we learn?
From the Diary of Eric Klein
Eric Klein, PhD, is a San Diego-based higher education executive and the Assistant Provost for Doctoral Research and Student Success at American College of Education.
| Role | Assistant Provost for Doctoral Research and Student Success, American College of Education |
| Based in | San Diego, California |
| Previously with | Ashford University, 2012 to 2019 |
| Also with | Author, The Future of Higher Education: Strategic Leadership for Academic Transformation (Koehler Books, December 1, 2026) |
“I want to be remembered as a leader who made things better for students and for the people doing the work.”
Editor’s Note
Executives Diary features Eric Klein because of a question he asks when a new initiative comes forward: what is the institution willing to change to make room for it. He asks it from a start as a staff psychologist and from roles that run from dean to associate vice chancellor to assistant provost. His answers stay close to what he has seen and done, including doctoral education work that contributed to higher persistence and satisfaction. His book on academic transformation is due December 1, 2026.
Executives Diary, Editorial
