The purpose of this study was to investigate the transformational leadership characteristics of college and university presidents of private Title III and Title V-eligible institutions. Private institutions of higher education comprise approximately half of the total post-secondary institutions in the U.S. However, they are at greater risk for closure than their public counterparts. The U.S. Department of Education's Strengthening Institutions Program, also known as Title III, was created as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide competitive grant support to institutions with higher percentages of low-income students and comparatively smaller general and educational expenditures per student. These institutions were considered vulnerable and at the same time, were deemed to be important for the nation's growing number of college-bound students. The Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, also known as Title V, was established a few decades later to serve institutions with a significant percentage of Hispanic students in addition to the Title III institutional characteristics. Higher education leadership theorists vary in their views on the efficacy of president transformational leadership in the college and university setting. However, by nature, private Title III and V-eligible institutions are at some level of risk for survival and president transformational leadership practices could provide the leverage needed for continued existence and prosperity. The 219 private, four-year Title III and V-eligible college and university presidents were invited to complete Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory-Self (LPI) in order to measure their leader behaviors through the LPI-descriptors "Model the Way", "Inspire a Shared Vision", "Challenge the Process", "Enable Others to Act", and "Encourage the Heart". President and institutional demographic information was also collected on gender, race/ethnicity, number of years in current position, total undergraduate student population, percent undergraduate minority population, urban or non-urban campus setting, and institutional religious affiliation to analyze for potential relationships and differences in LPI-descriptor responses. The data-generating sample was comprised of 146 presidents (66.67%) of private, four-year Title III and V-eligible institutions located throughout the United States. Presidents reported levels of engagement in transformational leader behaviors that were higher than a national average of executive managers, as measured by the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Posner, 2009). The presidents' strongest transformational leader behavior was reported as "Enable Others to Act", followed by "Model the Way", "Inspire a Shared Vision", "Encourage the Heart", and "Challenge the Process". Undergraduate enrollment was the only variable in the study that demonstrated significance with regards to the LPI descriptor scores. The relationship between undergraduate enrollment and president responses to three of the five LPI descriptors approached significance. Undergraduate enrollment approached significance as a predictor variable in a multiple regression of institutional characteristics for two LPI descriptors and was a significant positive predictor for the leader behavior, "Challenge the Process". [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]