This fledgling country’s first order of business after electing myself president would be to create a currency, maybe with one’s own likeness on it. Remember, this was before cryptocurrency, so having a HalCoin and a pump-and-dump scheme wasn’t a legit thing for leaders. We had to wait decades for that. Designing a national flag, though, would have been easy; universal healthcare, more challenging. Being in absolute control of a new country seemed exciting, vastly superior to sitting in social studies class, where we had to memorize the lineage of English kings.

In reality, no one then or now wants to land their token, so to speak, on Autocrat Avenue. Dictators around the globe have put millions to their death. Despotic bosses make the workplace sheer misery, as the 1960 blues classic “Big Boss Man” attests. Domestic tyrants give new meaning to the “lock” in wedlock.

Four decades down the road from those early musings, I find myself employed at a public university. Large universities are much like their own country, with their own president. You may know Weber State University has a brand-new president, Dr. Chris Mallett, who just published a Standard-Examiner op-ed as I finish writing mine. He arrived from Maine. I spent about seven years in Maine. It’s a beautiful state but the living ain’t always easy, between black fly season, the Maine state bird (mosquitoes) and the cold, gray, eternal winters.

Surviving them Maine wintahs, as Down East pronunciation would have it, demonstrates resilience, an essential quality in a college president these days. The demands of the job are enormous, and burnout in these positions is high. When I was in college 40 years ago, presidents were often traditional scholars, academic leaders serving roles defined by predecessors who historically were members of the clergy. At the same time, change was in the air. Certainly there were sit-ins and protests and complaints about pay and parking and fraternity problems and whether the sports teams were winning. Then, increasingly and by necessity, the job transitioned from leading the moral and intellectual development of young people to one demanding a businesslike approach. Presidents came under pressure to manage budget cuts, enrollment declines, federal programs, state legislative involvement, higher education commissions expecting data on classroom space utilization metrics, six-year graduation rates, graduate job placement rates and a million other things.

All those challenges aren’t too hard to handle, right? Kick butt and take names until the work is done. Those in industry or business often wonder why university presidents don’t regularly do so. Because in their world, the leader is the undisputed boss, a person whose word is law.

But public universities are different. They are democracies at their messy best. Negotiation can be exhausting. Faculty expect to have a significant say in decisions. As do students. And staff. Administrators. Neighbors. Alumni. Parents. The Utah Board of Higher Education. The Legislature. Taxpayers in general. Sports fans. K-12 schools. The City of Ogden. Regional employers. Hill Air Force Base. Weber County. And let’s not forget the federal government. A president has to be sure they don’t kick the wrong butt, lest they suddenly find themselves on the wrong end of the kicking.

Complicating matters is that even within these groups there are, well, opinions. A university president contends with faculty op-ed writers criticizing the wisdom, say, of placing a giant lighted letter on an otherwise unspoiled hillside, while others love a good electronic billboard. Presidents manage the political reality that some citizens want to protect college students from books or ideas that upset them, while others feel universities need to develop flexible thinkers, graduates able to navigate the messy world of controversial ideas. A president lives in a world where many expect DEI to be woven into every corner of the university, while others are determined to remove every trace of the words diversity, equity and inclusion from the university, even searching course syllabi for the offending words. These examples are the tip of the political iceberg.

And we haven’t even touched on the challenges of the impending WildcatCoin launch. Just kidding about that.

A public university, like a public park, is a place where each person should feel they belong: alumni, students, kids from surrounding towns — everyone. Though differences of opinion can seem to signal chaos, they do not. The presence of everything from dramatic theater performances, rowdy hockey games, passionate Pride parades or censor-free discussions is a sign of a healthy university.

Everyone connected with a public university wants to feel that it is their university. A president leads that diverse country, all the while balancing tradition with innovation. It’s no small feat.

Chris (if I may), good luck — we’re all rooting for you.

Hal Crimmel is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of English who served for nine years as chair of the English department at Weber State University. This commentary is provided through a partnership with Weber State. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent the institutional values or positions of the university.