2009-2010 Programs
1) “Presidential Leadership for the 21st Century: Classic Readings on Ethics, Power, and the Responsibilities of Leadership,” July 26-31, 2009. The seminar, a short course on the issues and dilemmas of leadership, uses classic texts as the readings for each day’s class. There are many uncertainties for higher education in the decades ahead, but it is beyond dispute that those who lead colleges and universities must be equipped to understand complex and unprecedented situations, and they must be prepared to bring into practical use the best strategic wisdom they can muster. Successful institutional leadership demands vigorous intellectual vision and decisive wisdom. Though the precise nature of the challenges ahead cannot be predicted or known, we are richly endowed with a cultural history full of cases in which leaders have been faced with circumstances they could not have foreseen. For millennia, humanity has been compiling a record of success and failure in sizing up a novel situation and acting with grace or ineptitude to confront it. Leaders have done well or poorly facing issues in the use, and abuse, of power and authority.
Moderator: John Churchill, Secretary of The Phi Beta Kappa Society. Educated at Rhodes College, Oxford University, and Yale University, Churchill brings years in the classroom, decades of senior academic administration, and seven years at the helm of the nation’s oldest academic honorary society to the seminar. For Churchill’s bio, Read More….
Seminar Content/Syllabus: The perils of power thread from Aeschylus’s Agamemnon to John Keegan’s profiles of history’s famous and infamous leaders in The Mask of Command. Recurrent leadership issues include finding and practicing justice, defining and constraining official deception, articulating leadership in the context of participatory governance, coping with contradictory obligations, reconciling official roles with collegial friendship, and managing conflicting moral visions. For the syllabus, Read More….
Co-Sponsors: The American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges
2) “Academic Leadership for the 21st Century: A Year-Long Program for Provosts and Chief Academic Officers to Prepare for the Presidency,” 2009-2010 Academic Year. This year-long program enhances the skill sets of provosts and chief academic officers for assuming roles as presidents and chancellors. The program consists of seminars in Washington, D.C. conducted by current and former presidents; 2) readings covering presidential leadership in areas not typically part of the chief academic officer’s portfolio; 3) experiential programs and initiatives developed by the chief academic officer and his/her president/chancellor undertaken on the home or another conveniently located campus; and 4) mentorship by an experienced president throughout the year as the chief academic officer engages in activities relevant to the roles and responsibilities of the presidency. In instances where the chief executive officer’s responsibilities will segment by institutional type, public or private, the program provides differential readings, seminar sessions, and experiences. The program began August 4-6, 2009, in Washington D.C.
Seminar – Washington, D.C., August 4-6, 2009: The seminar focused on the following areas which fall under the portfolio of the president or chancellor: Advancement; Alumni Relations; Athletics; Board Relations; Branding, Positioning, and Marketing; Enrollment Management; Governmental Relations; Presidential Associations; Presidential Leadership; and Systems of Governance/Oversight. For the complete syllabus and presentations, Read More....
Co-Sponsors: The American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Council of Independent Colleges
3) President-Trustee Dialogues – October 28 and November 10, 2009. AALI cooperates with the Council of Independent Colleges in conducting seminars for presidents and board chairs to examine such topics as board governance, president-board relations, and institutional strategy. In addition to familiar topics such as trustees’ responsibilities and the board’s role in planning, participants consider other topics such as “best practices” for board meetings, the emerging role of the “committee on trustees,” and the “curriculum” necessary to develop a strategic board. There are few partnerships more important to a president than the partnership with the board, its leaders and members.
The Fall 2009 Dialogues will be held at the following locations:
Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, October 28;
California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California, Tuesday, November 10.
Meeting materials, including William G. Bowen’s recent book, The Board Book, are provided to Dialogue participants. William Bowen presents his unique view of board governance, having served as President of Princeton University and the Mellon Foundation – an interesting perspective of board governance from the point of view of the CEO. Bowen also served on the Board of Trustees of Denison University and on the Board of Directors of American Express and Merck. At a time when many boards of trustees wonder if they should become more like corporate boards, Bowen compares, discusses, and contrasts non-profit and for-profit boards. Bowen’s book will be one of the major components of the meeting’s curriculum. AALI and CIC are also offering consultation to participants in the Dialogues. This new service grows out of requests by many previous Dialogue participants for further, deeper consultations, with participation of additional board members (at a retreat or board meeting) following the Dialogue sessions.
4) Preparing Deans and Division Chairs for Positions as Provosts/Chief Academic Officers – 2009-2010. AALI is beginning a new series of academic leadership development programs designed specifically for deans and division chairs with interest in preparing for a provost/chief academic officer position. Modeled somewhat on the current “Academic Leadership for the 21st Century” program, designed for provosts/chief academic officers to prepare them for presidencies, this new program will focus on the skills and experiences essential for successful leadership of the broad academic responsibilities of an institution. Provosts/chief academic officers, with the concurrence of their presidents/chancellors, will nominate outstanding deans and division chairs for this program. For more information contact AALI directly.
5) Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI), Washington, D.C. – June, 2010. AALI supports the work of the MLI program, now over a decade old. Through leadership development and mentoring, the program provides a unique annual career advancement opportunity for individuals from underrepresented groups in higher education to move into senior administration. MLI is a program of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).
6) 2010 Presidents Institute – January 4-7, 2010, San Marco Island, Florida. AALI will be a sponsor of the Presidents Institute for the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) by providing for plenary speakers. The Presidents Institute offers significant intellectual and practical insights to the leaders of private colleges and universities. AALI will also provide support to plan and implement a major Workshop on New Business Models and Entrepreneurial Approaches in Private Higher Education.
7) AALI Leadership Lecture – November 23, 2009, San Antonio, Texas. AALI will provide the second annual AALI Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The focus of the lecture will be a contemporary issue impacting higher education, but not per se on a higher education topic. The general theme of the 2009 annual meeting is “Leading the University of Tomorrow – Today.” Presidents indicate that funding issues and challenges arising from external developments in society consume much of their time, and that in-depth presentations on large issues facing society would be beneficial to them in charting the course of public higher education for the future. This lecture will become a regular feature of the Annual Meeting.
8) Institute for Chief Academic Officers – November 7-10, 2009, Santa Fe, New Mexico. AALI supports the Institute for Chief Academic Officers of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) by providing speakers and a broad program with significant intellectual and practical substance for the academic leaders of private colleges and universities. AALI support will also assist CIC in revising and deepening its “Workshop for CAOs in Their Third or Fourth Year of Service.” These academic leaders have learned the basic requirements of their positions and in most cases have already made changes in curricula, programs, or policies. Typically, however, chief academic officers in their third or fourth year are anxious to launch more significant changes – revising the core curriculum, revamping academic governance, or introducing a major new program. This workshop helps them understand the kinds of questions they should ask before they begin the process and how to manage the implementation of possible answers. Continuing increased demand indicates that this workshop is an important leadership development activity.
9) Research on Career Patterns of Private College Chief Academic Officers. In order to enhance its efforts to revitalize the leadership pipeline for independent colleges and universities, AALI will support CIC research on the personal and professional experiences and aspirations of chief academic officers. Building upon its study of “Career Patterns of Private College Presidents,” which AALI has also helped to support, CIC will analyze data from ACE’s new CAO Census. Research staff will examine the background characteristics, current duties and institutional responsibilities, career histories, and aspirations of chief academic officers of CIC member colleges and universities, and make comparisons with CAOs at other types of institutions. Results from the study will help focus CIC’s efforts to strengthen the senior leadership of independent colleges and expand the pipeline of those considering a college presidency.
10) Seeking the Presidency – February 3-4, 2010, St. Thomas. AALI supports the annual seminar for senior AASCU chief academic officers interested in becoming presidents or chancellors at AASCU institutions. The seminar addresses two core issues in the advancement of individuals to the presidency: search processes/functions and university leadership. The search processes/functions part of the seminar includes presentations and discussions of issues of “fit,” family considerations, letter and vita preparation, airport and campus interview preparation, contract negotiations, and early days in the presidency. The university leadership part of the seminar will include presentations and discussions of the nature of presidential leadership, building and managing the presidential team, changing the campus culture, effective communication strategies, presidential decision-making, crises management, working with communities, boards, and legislatures, and strategies for renewal.
11) Seminar on Leadership: Presidents – 2010. Supported by AALI, CIC piloted this program in 2009 and found that demand was high and that evaluations of the program were excellent. Therefore, CIC will offer the half-day seminar again in conjunction with the 2010 Presidents Institute. The seminar, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute and Wye Seminars, will use classic texts to stimulate discussion of issues of leadership. The moderator will be David Townsend, long-time leader of the Wye Seminars and Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis.
12) Seminar on Leadership: Chief Academic Officers – 2010. Supported by AALI, CIC piloted this program in 2008 and found that demand was high and that evaluations of the program were excellent. The seminar, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute and Wye Seminars, will be offered again in conjunction with the 2009 and 2010 Institutes for Chief Academic Officers as an extended seminar (two half days). Last year’s participants expressed a strong recommendation that the seminar be lengthened to allow deeper discussions of leadership issues as represented in classic texts. The moderator will be David Townsend, long-time leader of the Wye Seminars and Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis.
13) Study and Publication: Leadership for Challenging Times, September 2009. AALI supported the Commission on Presidential Leadership and Global Competitiveness of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The Commission focused, in its Executive Summary of the report, on “the responsibility of AASCU universities and colleges to take deliberate, concerted actions to help sustain the nation’s vitality and competitiveness in a global, multicultural and rapidly changing society.” Guiding the Commission’s work was “the premise that presidential leadership is key to the success of any effort to make the nation’s state colleges and universities more effective in educating graduates who understand international and intercultural dimensions of the challenges confronting the nation and the world.” The Commission’s report encourages presidents to address the question, “What should our institutions do to ensure that our students remain globally competitive?”
14) Research and Publication: A Study of Career Patterns of the Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities, by Harold V. Hartley III and Eric E. Godin, Summer, 2009. AALI supported the work of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) in analyzing and publishing data derived from the American Council on Education’s “American College President Study.” The following comes from the Introduction to the publication. “CIC analyzed the career patterns, education, and other demographic characteristics of first-time American college and university presidents from 1986 to 2006. Because of the Council’s interest in the preparation of college and university presidents and the professional routes they took to the presidency, the analysis was limited to first-time presidents, thus excluding from the study those who had previously served as president of another college or university. To determine if important differences existed between presidents of different types of institutions, comparisons were made between first-time presidents of CIC member institutions and presidents of four major sub-sector groups, namely public baccalaureate and master’s (BA/MA) level institutions, private doctoral - or research – universities, public doctoral universities, and public two-year or community colleges.” For the Executive Summary and full study report, Read More...
