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Dr. Michael Benson is the president of Coastal Carolina University and author of a biography about Daniel Coit Gilman, a pioneer in American higher education as the 1st president of Johns Hopkins University. Benson and I focus on how the then presidents of Cornell, Harvard and Michigan helped the trustees of JHU write the job description of the presidency that led to the hiring of Gilman. The discussion didn’t stick only to history, but instead we used the past to talk about present day higher education across the country and certainly at Coastal Carolina. Benson explains why he thinks writing is an important skill and how writing this book changed him as a university president.

• 00:20 Trustees Attempt to Define the JHU President Job Description
• 12:20 Public Lectures for the Baltimore Community
• 16:48 Coastal Carolina’s Presidential Signature Series
• 19:10 Older Generation Leaders Stepping Aside for Young Leaders
• 23:58 How Writing the Book Changed Benson as a College President