All college presidents technically hold employment contracts. But whether the terms of those contracts are spelled out clearly is a different story. This article reports that in a survey of 165 public universities where such documents are considered public information, one-third of public university chiefs do not have formal written agreements. Some of the collected agreements are extensive legal documents. For example, the president of Kent State University holds a 12-page contract with an eight-page attachment detailing his deferred compensation. However, some contracts, including those at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Missouri at St. Louis, are just brief letters of appointment from governing boards. Several of the 56 presidents who hold no formal, written contracts were hired a decade or more ago, when such agreements were less common. Another common reason for the lack of contracts is that governing boards may prefer that presidents be "at will" employees, who serve at the pleasure of boards and can be easily fired. Additionally, many boards may prefer to keep compensation details away from public scrutiny. Several experts on presidential pay criticize the number of "handshake" contracts in higher education. They say written contracts provide stability to the volatile, high-pressure role of the presidency, which is increasingly seen as a corporate-style CEO position.